The modern labor laws cannot be credited, however, to labor
activity alone. The new social atmosphere has provided a
congenial milieu for this vast extension of state functions. The
philanthropist, the statistician, and the sociologist have become
potent allies of the labor legislator; and such non-labor
organizations, as the American Association for Labor Legislation,
have added their momentum to the movement. New ideals of social
cooperation have been established, and new conceptions of the
responsibilities of private ownership have been evolved.
While labor organizations have succeeded rather readily in
bending the legislative power to their wishes, the military arm
of the executive and the judiciary which ultimately enforce the
command of the State have been beyond their reach. To bend these
branches of the government to its will, organized labor has
fought a persistent and aggressive warfare. Decisions of the
courts which do not sustain union contentions are received with
great disfavor. The open shop decisions of the United States
Supreme Court are characterized as unfair and partisan and are
vigorously opposed in all the labor journals. It is not, however,
until the sanction of public opinion eventually backs the
attitude of the unions that the laws and their interpretation can
conform entirely to the desires of labor.
The chief grievance of organized labor against the courts is
their use of the injunction to prevent boycotts and strikes.
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