Labor Law. Decree in Equity Regulating Hours and Wages Source: Columbia Law Review, Vol. 33, No.

7 (Nov., 1933), pp. 1265-1266 Published by: Columbia Law Review Association, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1116284 . Accessed: 02/04/2014 23:58
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DECISIONS

1265

is per se decision of the main case that the operation of a depression sweat shop18 unclean hands,l9involves the rejection of the dictum that "conflictingconsiderations of economic policy are not primarily the concern of courts."20 The court's refusal to consider the fact that pressure on the complainant made the conduct labelled inequitablea conditionof commercialexistencen marks the injection of an absolute economic content into the doctrine of unclean hands in labor controversies. This novel rationale presents a new mode of attack on the "absolute right to pay a wage which is injurious to a basic social interest."'
LABORLAW-DECREE IN EQUITY REGULATING HOURS AND WAGES.-The com-

plainant employer sought to enjoin alleged acts of violence attending a strike called by the defendant union. An injunction being denied,' the parties submitted the controversy under the Tuley Act.2 It was stipulated that the complainant was a reasonable employer treating his workers as well as competitive conditions
permitted. Decreed, that complainant re-employ its former employees who desire to return; that the parties desist from strikes and lockouts for a year; that all disputes be submitted to an arbitrator whose award is to be binding; and that hours and wages be fixed in accordance with the N.R.A. code whenever adopted in the industry, meanwhile to be not more than forty hours and not less than twelve

dollars per week. La Mode Garment Co. v. International Garment Workers

Union, Gen. No. B-272112 (Circuit Ct. of Cook County, Ill., August 16, 1933).

A submissionunder the Tuley Act is not arbitrationbut an equity proceeding culminating in a decree enforcible by contempt;3 therefore, orders such as the present for the submission of future disputes to arbitration, a method of settling
industrial conflict favored Illinois Arbitration Act,5 such provisions if found man to employ another.7
19Cf. Note

by the Recovery Administration4 but unauthorized by the seemingly circumvents the common law proscription6 of in a contract. Traditionally, equity will not force one However, lockouts have been enjoined8 and employers

75, 159 N. E. at 866.

See (1933) 36 MONTHLYLABORREVIEW500. (1930) 43 HARV. L. REV. 1120-2. Lehman, J., in Interborough Rapid Transit Co. v. Lavin, supra note 12, at

21 See (1933) 33 COLUMBIA LAW REV. 1265, 1266. But cf. (1932) 35 MONTHLY REVIEW LABOR 370. 2 M. R. Cohen,Property and Sovereignty (1927), 13 CORN. L. Q. 8, 11.
2

Park Commissioners v. Riddle, 245 Ill. 168, 177, 91 N. E. 1060, 1064 (1910); (1910) 5 ILL. L. REV. 245. 4 See N. Y. Times, Oct. 15, 1933, 8, p. 1.

LAW REV. 1264. Discussed in (1933) 33 COLUMBIA ILL. REV. STAT. (Cahill, 1933) c. 110, 26. Repealed as of Jan. 1, 1934. 3Farwell v. Sturges, 165 Ill. 252, 46 N. E. 189 (1897); see West Chicago

N.E. 95 (1923). 6 United States Asphalt Refining Co. v. Trinidad Lake Petroleum Co., 222 Fed. 1006 (S.D. N.Y. 1915); W. H. Blodgett Company v. Bebe Company, 190 Cal. 665, 214 Pac. 38 (1923). 7Hewitt v. Magic City Furniture& Mfg. Co., 214 Ala. 265, 107 So. 745 (1926);
Chambers v. Davis, 128 Misc. 613, 91 So. 346 (1922); Stone Cleaning and Pointing Union v. Russell, 38 Misc. 513, 77 N.Y. Supp. 1049 (Sup. Ct. 1902). But cf. Gregg v. Starks, 188 Ky. 834, 224 S. W. 459 (1920); Turner v. Hampton, 97 S. W. 761 (Ky. 1906); Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks v. Texas & N. O. R.

'ILL. REV. STAT. (Cahill, 1933) c. 10; Cocalis v. Naylides, 308 Ill. 152, 139

Co., 24 F.(2d) 426 (S. D. Tex. 1928), aff'd, Texas & New Orleans Railroad Company v. Brotherhoodof Railway & Steamship Clerks, 281 U. S. 548, 50 Sup. Ct. 427 (1929). Goldmanv. Cohen,222 App. Div. 631, 227 N. Y. Supp. 311 (lst Dept. 1928); cf. Lundoff-BicknellCo. v. Smith, 24 Ohio App. 294, 156 N. E. 243 (1927).

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1266

COLUMBIA LAW REVIEW

compelled to hire workers according to the terms of a contract with a union.9 The requisite mutuality may be found in ordering the union to discipline its members and so compel them to return to work.10 The instant decree seems merely to effectuate the complainant'sdesire that the men return. The Illinois counterpart" of section 20 of the Clayton Act,12 forbidding the indiscriminate enjoining of strikes,13 though not consideredby the court, seems sufficient to control the case; but so favorable a decree as the present, imposing a similar interdict against lockouts, goes far to preserve inviolate the spirit of "Labor'sBill of Rights." Where statutory inhibitionswere lacking, considerationsof public interest have led equity and an expressed national policy to issue decrees otherwise reluctantly rendered,14 during an emergency has resulted in restriction of a right to strike15normally unquestioned.16Thus, the purpose of the Recovery Act "to induce and maintain united action of labor and management"7may furnish the proper sanction for enjoining future strikes as part of some particular pattern for industrial peace. But if employees are temporarily to rethe Act also recognizes collective bargaining;1s linquish the means of effective dealing, some salutary provisions for wages and hours are essential. Arbitrators resorted to by employer and union have established binding wage scales.19 Here, also, the parties voluntarily submitted a wage dispute. It seems unlikely, however, that in submitting the controversy, the employer contemplatedeither subjection to the President's "blanket"code, or the possibility of a decree ordering compliance with standards so at variance with those of the industry as perhaps to compel operation at a loss. The Recovery Act directs that such mandatorychanges be wrought in the trade group as a whole; it is the peculiar limitation of courts, however, that they act in the particular. The execution of the policy of the N.I.R.A. therefore requires that pioneering steps in altering hours and wages be taken under administrative aegis, with the lash of judicial action reserved for bringing laggards into line by ordering adherence to general standards. 9Schlesinger v. Quinto, 201 App. Div. 487, 194 N. Y. Supp. 401 (1st Dept. 1922); Ribner v. Rasco Butter & Egg Co. Inc., 135 Misc. 616, 238 N.Y. Supp. Nasser, 61 Cal. App. Dec. 1259, 286 Pac. 1074 (1930). See Schlesinger v. Quinto, supra note 9, at 498, 499, 194 N. Y. Supp. at 410. 10
3 But cf. supra p. 1190, n. 22. 14Union Pacific Railway Companyv. Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company, 163 U. S. 564, 16 Sup. Ct. 1173 (1895); Gottlieb v. Matckin, 117 Misc. 128, 191 N.Y. Supp. 777 (Sup. Ct. 1921). But see Interborough Rapid Transit Companyv. Lavin, 247 N. Y. 65, 73, 159 N. E. 863, 866 (1928). 15 Cf. Rosenwasser Brothers, Inc. v. Pepper, 104 Misc. 457, 172 N. Y. Supp. 310 (Sup. Ct. 1918); see Wagner Electric Mfg. Co. v. District Lodge No. 9, International Assn. of Machinists, 252 Fed. 597, 599 (E. D. Mo. 1918); Emery, Indus-

132 (Sup. Ct. 1929), discussed in (1930) 30 COLUMBIA LAW REV. 410; Weber v. ILL. REV. STAT. (Cahill, 1933) c. 22, 58.

1 38 STAT. 738 (1914), 29 U. S. C. A. 52 (1926).

16See Chas. Wolff Packing Company v. Court of Industrial Relations of the State of Kansas, 262 U. S. 522, 541, 43 Sup. Ct. 630, 635 (1923). 1 P. L. No. 67, 73d Cong., 1st Sess., 1. 18 Id., 7. 9Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen,26 F.(2d) 413 (C. C. A. 7th, 1928); see Virginian Ry. Co. v. Chambers. 46 F.(2d) 20, 23 (C. C.A. 4th, 1930).

trial Relations and National Defense (1917) 17 AMER. INDUSTRIES 15; Nagel, The Army of the Shops (1917) 5 NATION'S BUSINESS 25. But see (1918) 32 HARV. L. REV. 837; Mason, The Right to Strike, 77 U. OF PA. L. REV. 52 (1928).

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