Progressive LawI. Progressivism

A. CharacterB. The Labor Problem

II. Protective LegislationA. Child laborB. Minimum wage-maximum hoursC. Social Insurance

III. Capital’s ResponseA. Open-shop driveB. Litigation

IV. Judicial ReactionA. Laissez-faireB. PolicingC. Criminal LawD. Injunction

V. Law’s Effect on the Labor MovementA. OrganizingB. IdeologyC. Outlaws

Character• People

– Professional class

– Educated

• Values– Public interest– Rule of law– Science,

expertise– Thrift,

efficiency

• Policies– Public services– Regulation

Representatives of the National Civic Federation, 1917

The “Labor Problem”

• Progressive goals– Help workers raise wages

– End violent strikes & lockouts

– Create cross-class political coalition to enact protective legislation

• Obstacles– Many reformers see unions

as selfish, tyrannical, & corrupt

– Unions see reformers as elitist, unrealistic Typical progressive view of

labor unions from Puck (1903)

Child labor• Extent

– In 1900, 2M children worked for wages

– 1/5th of all kids aged 10-16

– Percentage rose between 1880-1900

• Laws– North– Federal:

1916 Miner boys, Hughestown, Pa., circa 1908-12

Wages & Hours• Reformers seek laws

limiting the workweek

• AFL opposes

• Focus on classes of workers vested with some public interest– Bakers– Women

• Enforced by newly aggressive factory inspectors

Curt Muller’s laundry, Portland, Ore., c. 1900

Social Insurance

• Workers’ Compensation

• Unemployment insurance

• Pensions– Widows & orphans– Retirement (not until

1930s)

AALL founder, Prof. John Commons

Capital’s Response

• “Open-shop” drive– 1902-1905– Organizations

• National Association of Manufacturers

• American Anti-Boycott Association

– Seeks to uproot unions in metal, construction, trucking, & printing

• Litigation– Void protective

legislation– Gain anti-union

precedents

Corporate attorney Levy Mayer

Laissez-Faire

• USSC invalidates– Child labor laws– Wage-hours laws

• Principles– Federalism– Freedom of

contract– Right to property

U.S. Supreme court, 1921-30

Policing• Police

torn between powerful political groups

• Generally choose employers, property, & replacement workers

Police arrest injured striking teamster, 1903

Criminal Law• Elite controls

indictment process– Grand jury– State’s

attorney

• Try union officials for conspiracy

• Defendants appeal to trial juries

• Avoid prison, but court costs are prohibitive

Injunction• Judges prohibit

picketing, boycotts, & sympathy strikes

• Enforced by federal marshals or sheriff’s deputies

• Violators held without jury trial for contempt of court

• Punishable by jail time ARU head, Eugene Debs, 1894

Organizing

• AFL growth stalls in 1904

• Unions fail to organize semi-skilled factory labor

• But employers fail to uproot craft unions Packinghouse strike, 1904

Ideology

• Frustrated with the state, the AFL becomes even more committed to private agreements, privately enforced

• Anti-injunction law becomes main policy objective

AFL president Samuel Gompers

Outlaws• Labor

movement exists in legal limbo

• Unions permitted to exist, but not to fight employers

Labor slugger Charles Gilhooley, on trial for manslaughter, 1905