=The Federation and Political Issues.=—­The hostility of the Federation to the socialists did not mean, however, that it was indifferent to political issues or political parties.  On the contrary, from time to time, at its annual conventions, it endorsed political and social reforms, such as the initiative, referendum, and recall, the abolition of child labor, the exclusion of Oriental labor, old-age pensions, and government ownership.  Moreover it adopted the policy of “rewarding friends and punishing enemies” by advising members to vote for or against candidates according to their stand on the demands of organized labor.

[Illustration:  Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y.

SAMUEL GOMPERS AND OTHER LABOR LEADERS]

This policy was pursued with especial zeal in connection with disputes over the use of injunctions in labor controversies.  An injunction is a bill or writ issued by a judge ordering some person or corporation to do or to refrain from doing something.  For example, a judge may order a trade union to refrain from interfering with non-union men or to continue at work handling goods made by non-union labor; and he may fine or imprison those who disobey his injunction, the penalty being inflicted for “contempt of court.”  This ancient legal device came into prominence in connection with nation-wide railway strikes in 1877.  It was applied with increasing frequency after its effective use against Eugene V. Debs in the Pullman strike of 1894.

Aroused by the extensive use of the writ, organized labor demanded that the power of judges to issue injunctions in labor disputes be limited by law.  Representatives of the unions sought support from the Democrats and the Republicans; they received from the former very specific and cordial endorsement.  In 1896 the Democratic platform denounced “government by injunction as a new and highly dangerous form of oppression.”  Mr. Gompers, while refusing to commit the Federation to Democratic politics, privately supported Mr. Bryan.  In 1908, he came out openly and boasted that eighty per cent of the votes of the Federation had been cast for the Democratic candidate.  Again in 1912 the same policy was pursued.  The reward was the enactment in 1914 of a federal law exempting trade unions from prosecution as combinations in restraint of trade, limiting the use of the injunction in labor disputes, and prescribing trial by jury in case of contempt of court.  This measure was hailed by Mr. Gompers as the “Magna Carta of Labor” and a vindication of his policy.  As a matter of fact, however, it did not prevent the continued use of injunctions against trade unions.  Nevertheless Mr. Gompers was unshaken in his conviction that organized labor should not attempt to form an independent political party or endorse socialist or other radical economic theories.