Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/464

450 not to give them work, that is again precisely as much of a ban as if laborers agree not to work for a given employer any longer. The anomaly is that such a ban is now as before to be permitted to the employer, while it is forbidden to the laborer. Herein lies not merely a destruction of the right of coalition, but at the same time a violation of the principle that all citizens shall be equal before the law. The law is thus a special law against striking laborers. It places things under penalty when they are done by striking laborers which remain free from penalty if done by other men.

Furthermore, in sec. 3 of the bill a penalty of imprisonment for not less than three months is provided for anyone who makes it his business to carry on transactions of the before-mentioned sort. The expression "business" (Geschäft) is up to date not to be found in our criminal law. The meaning undoubtedly is that no one shall make an occupation of these transactions and obtain an income from them. As the justification and the memorial show, this remarkable paragraph is directed against the officers of labor organizations. It will accordingly hardly be possible for the majority of secretaries of unions or editors of the trade papers to avoid "defamation of character," "ban," or "threats," within the sense of this law, even if they restrain themselves entirely from insults and abuses in the ordinary sense of the word. And if imprisonment for several months threatens them in every case, not many men will be found willing to enter such positions. That is, of course, precisely the intention. Efficient and intelligent men are to be prevented from undertaking the leadership of the labor movement. The employers are to remain in a position to appoint well-trained men, yes as a rule men highly cultivated as economists, to be the managers of their associations. But the corresponding positions in the labor organizations are to be made so dangerous that no one will offer himself for them who can find any other employment. Again, therefore, an effective use of their right of coalition is made impossible to the laborers, for how can they, without expert leadership, even approximately forecast the prospects of a strike? Here again it is manifest that the