United States v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen

96 F. Supp. 428, 27 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2308, 1951 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2464
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedFebruary 9, 1951
Docket50-C-1746
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 96 F. Supp. 428 (United States v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, 96 F. Supp. 428, 27 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2308, 1951 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2464 (N.D. Ill. 1951).

Opinion

IGOE, District Judge.

I don’t suppose I will ever know any more about this case than I do right now. I might as well say some of the things that I am thinking about.

I think we can start off by referring to the fact that an injunction was issued in this case on the 13th day of December, 1950, and it had three general provisions in its order. One was directed at the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and its lodges and subunits and its officers restraining them from in any manner encouraging, ordering, engaging in or taking any part in the strike.

The second had to do with the members of the Railroad Trainmen, restraining them along the same lines and the third paragraph has to do with what Mr. Lulinski calls an exhortation feature where it was suggested to them in appropriate language that they take whatever action was necessary to have the members of this Union resume their former place of employment.

Now, that was the injunction that was issued. Thereafter rule to show cause was entered calling upon the respondents to that rule to show cause why they should not be punished for failure to comply with the provisions of the injunctive order.

An answer was filed to that rule to show cause and that is the issue which has been on trial in this court for several days.

Much evidence has been heard and many witnesses have been listened to. Out of all of it we are supposed to arrive at some sort of a conclusion which is determinative of this issue.

It is not an easy case to decide. No case where human rights are involved is ever easy to decide. Always the case involving the man who works is most difficult to decide. There are certain things, however, that are not involved in this law suit and, I think, we ought to talk about them first:

First of all, there is no involuntary servitude connected with this law suit because the injunctive order provides nothing shall be construed to require an individual employee to render labor or services without his consent or to make the quitting of his labor or services by an individual employee *430 an illegal act. In other words, anybody in America can quit any job he wants to and there is no power under our Government that can tell a person to work if such a person does not desire to work. S01, we will eliminate that feature from this case.

Now, the wages that the men have received and the hours that they work and the conditions under which they work are not in issue here. They are not in this law suit. And a right-minded person may sympathize with everything for which the men are contending, more wages, better working conditions, happier lives, on all of those things we may sympathize with them; we may sympathize but they are not at issue in this law suit. And so, we will eliminate that.

There is another item that should be eliminated. That is patriotism. There isn’t any question about the patriotism of the men involved in this law suit. There is no question about the patriotism of the men involved on either side of the law suit. Among the members of the Brotherhood are, I think it has appeared from the evidence, many of them who have served under the flag of this country in different areas of warfare, and their descendants are perhaps serving at the present time. They exhibit at the present time, as I am sure they always have in the past and no doubt will in the future, they exhibit and they display just as much patriotism as any other group of individuals anywhere within our land1. Let us eliminate patriotism.

We then get down to this question: what is this law suit about? This law suit is about a difficulty your 'Government has experienced in trying to function as a Government. That is what is involved here. We are all part of the Government. That flag over there is just as much your flag as it is mine. You are just as much interested in the protecting of it as I am and, perhaps, at times you have done more than I have to protect it. But your Government is involved in this situation, and your Government says its right to function as a Government has been interfered with. That is what is involved here.

It is not wages, it is not hours, it is not working conditions. It is not patriotism. The question involved here is shall this Government function as by its founders it was intended to function. That means shall it be permitted to function by discharging all of its Constitutional duties.

One of its duties has to do with interstate commerce. Under our Constitution the commerce between our states must not be interfered with. It must not be obstructed. That is an obligation of our Government. He who interferes with the exercise of that duty of our Government interferes with the Government.

Another obligation cast upon the United States Government has to do with the mails. It has to do with the establishment of rural roads for the transportation of mail. It has to do with the operation and function of the Post Office. That is something your Government is charged with. Your Government says that obligation on its part has been interfered with because the commerce between the states carrying that mail has been impeded.

We, of course, live at a time when another right of our Government it is claimed has been interfered with. I do not want to dwell much upon that because it always creates a lot of situations that, perhaps, had better not be created, and that is this sickening question of impending war. Of course, everybody realizes our Government has the right to conduct a war, and everybody realizes that in the conduct of a war no one shall interfere with the Government.

Now, I mention those as some of the great rights that this Government has which underlie this law suit, and it is about those rights that your Government is complaining at the present time. They say they are interfered with, and the Union men, perhaps with the best intentions say, “We believe in all those things but we also have the right to live. We also have the right to rear our families. We also have the right to a decent wage and proper working conditions.” All of that is granted. All of that should be yours but in seeking those rights you are permitted to go so *431 far and no -further. You are permitted to approach so far and beyond that point you are not permitted to go further. And when it comes to a question of the rights of an individual as compared with the rights of the Government, of course, the rights of the individual are secondary to the rights of the Government. The Government represents all of us.

Now, this is not a new situation. As Mr. Lulinski said a moment ago, this came up in this very City more than half a century ago in the case which involved one of the greatest labor leaders America ever produced, Mr. Eugene Debs. In re Debs, 158 U.S. 564, 15 S.Ct. 900, 912, 39 L.Ed. 1092. That law suit arose in this City. It arose out of a dispute between labor men and railroads. The son of one of the lawyers who represented Mr. Debs appears in this court room at times. The partner of one of the lawyers for Mr. Debs is a retired Judge of this Court. That is how close it is to the present situation.

Now, here is what the Court said in that.

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Bluebook (online)
96 F. Supp. 428, 27 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2308, 1951 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2464, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-brotherhood-of-railroad-trainmen-ilnd-1951.