Show TURNING TIlE TABLES At Weymonth Mass some time ago the workmen in the shoe factories struck for higher wages necessitating the closing of the shops for a time Then new men were taken On at the old wages and the strikers discovering that they had undertaken more than they ciuld accomplish asked for their old places They were denied tho employers refusing to discharge men who had gone to them in their distress The strikers charged that all employers em-ployers in that neighborhood had entered into a conspiracy not employ any of the men who went out and a suit was broughtin the name of one of them against a manufacturer for damages on the ground that the agreement of the employers was a conspiracy to prevent pre-vent workingmen from earning a aving The case has just been decided and against the plaintiff as it should have been The Judge says in his decision I It seems to be the pollc of our laws and one in full consistency with the enlarged spiritof freedom of the present day that every man has right to determine what branch of business he will pursue and to make his own contracts with whom he pleases and on the best terms he can He may refuse to deal with any man or class of men and it is no crime for any number of persons without an unlawful object in view io associate themselves together and agree that they will not work for or deal v ith certain men or classes of men or work under a certain price or without certain conditions It seems to be well setled law that any workman or body of workmen may Hwfully form and act as an association for the purpose of protecting themselves atrainst the encroachments of their em plovers The ndge goes on to say that employers em-ployers have a perfect right to combine for mutual protection against laborers as workmen have to combine for protection pro-tection against the grinding employers which seems good law as well as good common sense Unfortunately for tne members too many labor unions the organizations are conducted as if the workmen were masters of the rights ot both employer and employee The latter lat-ter assumes the right to quit work at any time or for any cause and he generally gen-erally arranges to stop at a time when 1 it will be mst injurious to his employer Ha dent say to I the employer in two weeks or three weeKaror at such time as yell can arrange I ar-range your business so as to best dispense dis-pense with my wois I wIll quit On the contrary he awaits ap opportunity and when he thinks tir a iloyer is in a tight place ant will hare succumb to demands which may b3 asouable 01 other iVi e the man stops work and declares he will return only on a com plyance with tho conditions which he imposes Even this he has a legal right to do though not a moral one B 15 he iB disposed to go farther and to say that no ohar worknan shall tako his place and ha w 11 prevent it by forca if he can Tb3 uareisonabla of mn that strike is almost universal If em ployera W3 e half ai unreasonable and unjust the public generally would shame them back into decency Plainly Plain-ly workmn who strike oaght not to complain if employers combine to refuse re-fuse employment to strikers The conspiracy con-spiracy in such a case is excusable |