Judicial Bias Against Organized Labor
The Labor Journal clashes with a federal judge over his interrogation of naturalization applicants regarding their union ties.
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.
Federal Judge Donworth, interrogating a string of prospective citizens the other day as to their fitness for naturalization, saw fit to drag unionism into the game in the same manner as an Eastern judge a few months ago. From the tenor of the questions, it is implied that unionism in its popular conception is inimical to good government. We contend that there is no more law-abiding people in this country than trade unionists, but we admit that most of them are able to see the difference between law by due process and the judge-made edicts that are hurled from the judicial benches. Samuel Gompers stated over and over again where organized labor stands in this matter: that it yields to none in its respect for the laws of the country but is unalterably opposed to the abridgement of the rights of our citizens through the arbitrary use of the injunction.
“We contend that there is no more law-abiding people in this country than trade unionists.”
This editorial captures the early 20th-century friction between the federal bench and the rising power of labor unions, a tension that defined the legal landscape for decades and still echoes in debates over labor law and judicial activism.
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