Summer Plower (verse)

...The revolution that has taken place in manufactur- ing methods in the United States is being met by the constructive policies of the American Federation of Labor...

...I think he hauls his wet horse 'round, He, near as Cain can get to king, And sets the well-worn point, and thinks Of one, far, cool, persistent spring...

...There is much said today about the attitude of big business, bankers and economists that higher wages must be paid to purchase our present mass production...

...270 T H E C O M M O N W E A L July IO, 1929 Railway Clerks had secured a $.o5 an hour increase on the Southern Pacific's western line, through arbitra- tion...

...H. JAMEs ROCKEL...

...It will make for a better understanding of the atti- tude of the courts in issuing injunctions in labor dis- putes when it is realized that practically the first in- junction was issued about the year 1887 by the present presiding Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Mr...

...from that point we find that iniunctions have steadily increased to where there have been as many as 3oo issued in one year...

...Once public opinion is established upon an industrial problem it will ordinarily adjust itself to a proper course or will create a law that will be in accord with the best interests of the industry as a whole...

...The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals said in refer- ence to the above letter that the fostering of the com- pany union was based upon running it for $75,ooo whereas it would cost $34o,ooo for the increase under the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks...

...The courts of our country, particularly the federal, by their rulings in equity cases brought against the American trade-unions, have contributed indirectly to the open-shop employer...

...The judge imposed the punishment in spite of the explanation the two organizers had made to the meeting of the men that they could not be a party to it because of the injunc- tion of the federal court...

...Green, with his concept of our new industrial methods, has based his leadership upon an intelligent discussion in conference between em-ployers and officers of trade-unions...

...One of the most flagrant of many instances of the abuse of injunctions was the case of the federal court in Indianapolis that resurrected an injunction issued twelve years before, restraining the street rail-way men employed by the local traction lines from forming a trade-union...

...The American Federation of Labor has contended year in and year out for the past twenty-five years that the presiding judges of federal district courts have exceeded the conmtutional limits of their power as provided by Congress when they have sat in equity to pass upon the problems affecting employers and employees...

...The American Federation of Labor has been enunciating this policy since it was first or-ganized...

...They also admit that the shorter work week is necessary to provide leisure for the people as a part of the program to utilize what they produce...

...The American Federation of Labor has had to meet this form of control from without its ranks since it was first organized in I88I...

...The late Samuel Gompers, writing in the Forum after the panic of t893, said: "The problem of American industry is not overproduction but under- consumption...

...Taft...

...He realizes that the intricate mechanism that controls our American industrial life calls for methods that will substitute the conference for the strike (but without waiving that right) so that the American workman can sell his labor without intimidation, and work out his own individual industrial salvation...

...There were only a few issued each year until about ten years ago...

...The organizers were arrested and held in contempt of court, sentenced and served ninety days in jail, although the testimony before the Senate showed that a stool-pigeon in the pay of the local traction company was the one who made the motion for the men to strike...

...If we are successful in dealing with our own em-ployees through a company union, I am satisfied we can make settlement at a cost not to exceed $75,ooo annually...

...eYUraraer Plower He cannot cool his beaded brow As his colter cools its earth-sunk nose While it lays each shinmg, graven mold Snug abed, in dovetailed rows...

...To apply that increase to our lines in Texas and Louisiana would cost $34o,ooo a year," he said...

...The hearings conducted before a committee of the United States Senate that is now considering a bill for the regulation of injunc- tions in industrial disputes, brought out a mass of testimony showing that the federal courts by their rulings have practically taken away the rights of working-men to a voluntary association...

...It seems that the present-day student of our American industrial life fails to probe the real basis of American trade-unionism...

...It is all a part of the old Socialist Labor Party, the Industrial Workers of the World and the One Big Union, and when that movement fizzled in western Canada, along came the Communists...

...These two problems of organized labor are being met by the American trade-unions with their basic policy that no correction can take place in our Ameri- can industrial life without a proper educating of pub- lic opinion...

...The recent effort of the so-called Progressive Con- ference held in New York was on the old theory that economic problems can be adjusted by political meas-ures...

...Or does he like the prophet muse Of sword and share and hot-fought war, Or dream he turns some sky-deep field Where one may stumble on a star...

...And so, at each row's ragged end, When he wipes his forehead on his shirt, Does he enjoy a freshening thought In eyeing serried waves of dirt...