"Labor Is Free"

Law and Art consumed the energy and attention of the executive council of the American Federation of Labor last week in Atlantic City.

Law. For a score of years U. S. equity law has hobbled Labor organization, has hampered its strike activities. Senator Henrik Shipstead of Minnesota offered a bill to revolutionize the use of injunctions. The Senate Judiciary Committee rejected it as unconstitutionally radical. With the aid of Senators Walsh of Montana, Norris of Nebraska and Elaine of Wisconsin, the A. F. of L. last week concocted a substitute bill which, if adopted, would change the whole character of labor troubles, strengthen strikes, compel employers to ground their injunction applications on legal proof instead of fears.

Should the A. F. of L. bill become law of the land, the public Labor policy of the U. S. would be:

"Whereas under prevailing economic conditions unorganized workers are commonly helpless, it is necessary that they have full freedom of trade union organization . . . for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection."

The bill would prevent the issuance of injunctions: 1) to prevent strikes; 2) to impound strike benefit payments; 3) to stifle strike publicity; 4) to block strike meetings. No strike could be construed in restraint of trade. Temporary injunctions would be limited to five days and then only if the complainant posted a large bond. Violation of injunctions (contempt of court) would be tried before a jury. Applicants for injunctions would have to establish their case, not by affidavits, as now, but by sworn testimony to which Labor could make answer. Enjoiners would also have to prove they had made "every reasonable effort" to settle the dispute before resorting to a U. S. court.

The A. F. of L. measure is retroactive, nullifying all existing injunctions which contravene its provisions. Famed injunctions it would set aside:

Bedford Stone, wherein union workers are compelled to handle material made by strikebreakers in another State.

West Virginia Coal Fields, where U. S. court orders bar organizers of the United Mine Workers of America.

New Orleans Street Car (see col. 1).

Art. Last year the A. F. of L. offered $1,000 in prizes in a competition for designs for a $120,000 memorial to the late great Samuel Gompers. Congress has already donated a site on Washington's Massachusetts Ave. hard by the A. F. of L. building.

To Atlantic City a score of sculptors and architects journeyed hopefully with their models which they set around the sun parlor of the Ambassador Hotel. The executive council made inspections, heard explanations and descriptions. Plain men themselves, they were puzzled by the artistic conceptions of Labor placed before them. Cried President William Green: "I'm wearied of always seeing Labor pictured bearing a burden. Labor is free." Remarked another troubled councilman: "Some of these would be all right if the sculptor could be chained to the job to tell people what it's all about. But what could be done when he died?

After great uncertainty the council chose a design by Sculptor Alexandre Zeitlin and Architect Robert Lafferty, both of Manhattan. The model shows Gompers standing on a triangular pedestal with workingmen at each corner, looking up at him, shining searchlights upon him at night. President Green, awarding no contract to the prize winners, explained that the model "might be modified somewhat to suit the ideas of the Council."