to change from one place to another (except presumably the labor
unions themselves), or to bring workmen into the State by means of
any false or deceptive representations, false advertising or false
pretences, or by reason of the existence of a strike or other
"trouble." Failure to state in an advertisement, proposal or contracts
for the employment of workmen that there is a strike or other
"trouble" is made a criminal offence, punishable with a year's
imprisonment or two thousand dollars fine (this is the law which
failed of passage in the Massachusetts Legislature of 1910).
The hiring of armed guards, as is usual in the West, is made heavily
criminal. Finally, to workmen who have been influenced or persuaded
to do anything by anybody except another workman, is given a suit for
damages against the person so persuading them. The lot of the employer
in Oklahoma is indeed a parlous one!
By the law of April 24, whenever a workman is discharged, his employer
must give him a letter stating the reason truly, under penalty of five
hundred dollars fine and one year's imprisonment, and such letter must
be written, not printed, and the form and appearance of the stationery
is carefully provided for and all secret marks forbidden. Oklahoma is
one of the eight-hour States, with the minimum average wage in public
work, referred to above; and all contracts must be made on that basis.
Wages must be paid fortnightly in cash, by all persons or corporations
engaged in mining or manufacturing.
Oklahoma is the test-tube of American legislative reactions. We shall
await with interest the legislation of 1911, as well as the effect
of the laws we have summarized above. In the meantime Oklahoma has
presented to the constitutional lawyer the long-sought problem of
whether a sovereign State once admitted to the Union is bound by
the Act of Congress authorizing such admission. The enabling act of
Oklahoma required that its capital should be fixed at Guthrie and
not moved for a period of years. In May, 1910, within such period of
limitation, by act of legislature, supplemented by a plebiscitum of
the people and the executive action of Governor Haskell, the capital
was removed to Oklahoma City, and the State seal conveyed there
surreptitiously, in spite of the injunction of a Federal district
court. A more beautiful American constitutional question could hardly
be presented. It may not at first seem to the reader so important, but
when he considers that, for instance, Utah and other Western States
have abolished Mormonism in the same manner, or have agreed to give
equal treatment to the Japanese and Chinese in the same manner--by
an enabling act of Congress, ratified and perpetuated in the State
Constitution--he will see the importance of the question. It was
anticipated in the writer's work on constitutional law ("Federal and
State Constitutions," p. 186, note 8): "The enabling acts admitting
the eight new Western States usually provided against polygamy on
account of the Mormon influence, and this, with other provisions
concerning schools, etc., was made forever irrepealable without the
consent of the United States; see Utah 3, 1. This is probably only a
moral obligation; a State when once admitted comes in with all the
rights of the older States. So far as this section is concerned, Utah
could probably amend her Constitution and re-establish Mormonism
to-morrow."
European legislation is necessarily more elaborate because there is
usually no body of existing common law. Trades-unions are universally
made lawful, as they are with us. But in France in certain cases the
consent of the government to the formation of such organizations is
necessary; and the Code Napoleon made unlawful all combinations of
persons with an "evil end."[1] So, "full freedom of association" is
now guaranteed in Switzerland; and in Germany the trade guilds are
largely recognized, but membership must not be compulsory. In Austria
a strict governmental control is exercised, and the principle of
obligatory guilds is unreservedly accepted. There does not appear to
be any legislation upon strikes except in Great Britain, France, and
Italy, such matters being left largely to the political or police
authorities. Strikes were unlawful in England until comparatively
recent times, but were always lawful in this country, and are so by
the modern French law, which is much similar to ours, as is the case
in Italy; but in Russia the leaders of a strike may be imprisoned.
[1] Quoted in Dane's Abridgment, published in 1800.
In no country do I find any specific legislation as to boycotts,
except the English statute already referred to, repealing the common
law of conspiracy, both civil and criminal, in industrial disputes.
Germany and Austria have blacklisting laws. The matter of riots, etc.,
is generally left to the criminal law to control. In no country other
than the United States do I find any prohibition against a man's
protecting his own property with private guards, armed or otherwise.
Arbitration laws in the British colonies are very generally aimed
at the prevention of strikes. Otherwise there seems to be less
legislation on the subject during the last ten years than might have
been expected. The Orange River Colony has severe laws concerning the
labor of the blacks, of a nature resembling our peonage laws in
the Southern States. Similar conditions seem to lead to similar
legislation throughout the modern world.
Legislation is now much desired here also to obviate the effect of
the Taff Vale case and that of the Danbury hatters which applies its
principals to interstate commerce; that is to say, which shall secure
the funds of a trades-union to its benevolent purposes, or even to its
use in industrial disputes, strikes, boycotts, etc., without making it
liable for the results of litigation. In these cases the moneys in the
treasury of a trades-union, although unincorporated, have been held
responsible for damages awarded in a suit brought against the union or
its members for conspiracy under the Sherman Act, or otherwise. It
is, however, difficult to see how such legislation with us could be
devised so as to be constitutional, for it would necessarily extend
only to a certain class of persons, and be framed to exempt them
alone from a certain definite legal liability. Nevertheless it has in
England been enacted.[1]
[Footnote 1: See above, p. 268: The Trade Disputes Act, 1906, sec. 4.]