UDGE A. B. ANDERSON'S sweeping injunction against the United Mine Workers of America in the Borderland Corporation case, which was reviewed in the last issue of LABOR AGE, was modified last month by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals. The court held that Judge Anderson had gone beyond his power in the case in enjoining the miners from sending funds into West Virginia to aid the employees of all the coal corpo- rations there, and that he should have confined the in- junction to the employees of the Borderland Company only. Also, the injunction should have been limited to such specific acts of violence on the part of the United Mine Workers as were alleged. The sweeping veto on About the same time, however, the United States Supreme Court, through Chief Justice Taft-playing his old role against labor-handed down a decision which declared that the injunction against labor could not be abolished by legislation. This means nothing less than that the action taken by the British Parliament in 1906, by which labor there was rid of the injunction, cannot be taken here. It also means that the legislative drive of the American Federation of Labor against the injunc- tion will probably meet with the ban of the courts. The situation resulting is serious. It seems to present no alternatives for labor. At this time the injunction study which LABOR AGE and certain trade unions have made possible, should be helpful in offering ways to make Why "Big Six" Won How Technical Research Helped Union Hold Its War-Time Wages By GEORGE SOULE H One of the most vicious assaults made by the "open shop" movement is that on the International Typographical Union and the other unions in the printing industry. In St. Louis, for example, the union printers have been locked out by their employers since May. This is of particular concern, because the printing industry has always been one of the most thoroughly organized. The victory of "Big Six" in this fight is of no small consequence. OW does research benefit the labor movement? Many a union member of both radical and conservative wings would answer that while research may be interesting and a good long-time policy, the accumulation of statistics, after all, is of no direct benefit to labor. He would say that labor wins advantages only through the power of its organization and leadership and the shrewdness of its leaders. Such an answer would be right in pointing out that good organization and leadership are the first essential. But it would be wrong if it did not also admit that the possession of a wide array of facts is of immense adIvantage to the strongest union and the keenest official. necessary in the complex field of modern economic struggles, where nomic struggles, where superior technical knowledge often may decide a battle, than in the contests of physical force. "Big Six" and the "Open Shop" An important case in point is that of Typographical Union No. 6, the New York City local of the International Typographical Union. This tion" and wholesale wage reductions without local has come through the period of "deflalosing a cent from the highest scale it achieved in the war period. It did so not through any special favorable circumstances, or any ironbound contract. It had to submit to arbitration, and maintained its scale by an arbitrator's decision. Now, "Big Six" is one of the oldest and strongest unions in the country, and its leadership is unusually capable. This strength and this leadership preserved it from the danger of assaults of any "open-shop" campaign, and enabled it to come through with collective bargaining, the closed shop and voluntary arbitration intact. Its officials had been through many arbitration proceedings, and are extremely able debaters. Yet, when the crucial moment arrived, in November, 1921, and the employers petitioned an arbitrator for an 18 586351 |