[79] In 1907 Haywood was tried and acquitted with two other officers of the Western Federation of Miners at Boise, Idaho, on a murder charge which grew out of the same labor struggle.  This was one of the several sensational trials in American labor history, on a par with the Molly Maguires’ case in the seventies, the Chicago Anarchists’ in 1887, and the McNamaras’ case in 1912.

[80] The same applies to the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.

[81] Except the miners, brewers, and garment workers.

[82] See above, 185-186.

[83] This refers particularly to the six shopmen’s unions.

CHAPTER 10

THE WAR-TIME BALANCE SHEET

The outbreak of the War in Europe in August 1914 found American labor passing through a period of depression.  The preceding winter had seen much unemployment and considerable distress and in the summer industrial conditions became scarcely improved.  In the large cities demonstrations by the unemployed were daily occurrences.  A long and bloody labor struggle in the coal fields of Colorado, which was slowly drawing to an unsuccessful end in spite of sacrifices of the heaviest kind, seemed only to set into bold relief the generally inauspicious outlook.  Yet the labor movement could doubtless find solace in the political situation.  Owing to the support it had given the Democratic party in the Presidential campaign of 1912, the Federation could claim return favors.  The demand which it was now urging upon its friends in office was the long standing one for the exemption of labor unions from the operation of the anti-trust legislation and for the reduction to a minimum of interference by Federal Courts in labor disputes through injunction proceedings.

During 1914 the anti-trust bill introduced in the House by Clayton of Alabama was going through the regular stages preliminary to enactment and, although it finally failed to embody all the sweeping changes demanded by the Federation’s lobbyists, it was pronounced at the time satisfactory to labor.  The Clayton Act starts with the declaration that “The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce” and specifies that labor organizations shall not be construed as illegal combinations or conspiracies in restraint of trade under Federal anti-trust laws.  It further proceeds to prescribe the procedure in connection with the issuance of injunctions in labor disputes as, for instance, limiting the time of effectiveness of temporary injunctions, making notice obligatory to persons about to be permanently enjoined, and somewhat limiting the power of the courts in contempt proceedings.  The most vital section of the Act relating to labor disputes is Section 20, which says “that no such restraining order or injunction shall prohibit any person or persons, whether singly or in concert, from terminating any relation of employment, or from ceasing to perform any work