Note 182 — Chapter XXI · LABOR AND LABOR PROBLEMS

Although this program does not contain anything that savors of violence, or of arbitrary control of industry by the workers, or of dictatorial methods towards the public it sometimes happens that individual labor organizations or their leaders are guilty of these things. While professing disapproval of violence, the labor leaders have on occasions (though not as a rule) tolerated it. Labor leaders, moreover, in some cases have exacted money from employers under threat of calling men off their jobs; the Brindell case in New York City is a recent illustration. On some notable occasions labor leaders have been convicted and sent to jail for resorting to organized terrorism against employers. All this, however, does not condemn the program of labor organizations as a whole. No body of men, particularly when it numbers several million members, can in fairness be judged by the wrongful acts of a few.