A Landmark Victory for Free Speech and Labor
The Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss contempt charges against three labor leaders marks a turning point for the rights of workers to boycott and organize.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The reversal of the lower courts by the Supreme Court of the United States in the contempt case against Gompers, Mitchell and Morrison closes a legal battle that has lasted for five years in the courts of the country. Probably no legal battle in history held a greater significance to labor. From the beginning, vital questions were involved. The right of associations of men to withhold or bestow patronage at will and the right of free speech and free press were the great questions labor considered vital. The Supreme Court has reversed the circuit court of appeals and ordered the contempt case dismissed and in this verdict lies a splendid victory. Labor has always contended that injunctions should not issue in labor disputes unless it be conclusively shown that life or property is in danger. Injunctions of this character will be noticeably less in the future.
“The sooner we realize that this labor struggle is no pink tea affair but a life and death struggle, the sooner will we throw our whole hearts into the fight.”
This 1911 ruling curtailed the common practice of using court injunctions to crush labor strikes, a strategy that often mirrors modern corporate efforts to utilize legal leverage against union organizing. The battle over whether labor could exert collective influence through boycotts remains a central theme in the history of American economic justice.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.