THE CLOSED SHOP CONTROVERSY evil of trusts.1 But the Mogul Steamship Company case is an authority that that can not be done without legislation and a further question might arise in the United States whether such legislation would be consti tutional. The condemnation of the contract for the closed shop belongs in the same category. In each case what is proposed is a reform of the competitive system under which we live. There are admitted evils in the competitive system and the increasing keenness of competition tends to bring them out in strong relief, but such changes as are 1 See Control of Trusts by John Bates Clark, Macmillan, 1902.
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contemplated cannot properly be made piecemeal through judicial decision. It must be done, if at all, by legislation, includ ing, if necessary, constitutional changes. It would probably be difficult to persuade our legislatures to forbid the making of con tracts by labor unions or others for sepa rate and exclusive employment. The courts are therefore appealed to rather than the legislatures. When they declare against such contracts do they not simply infringe without warrant that freedom of contract which is reckoned among the fundamental rights? BOSTON, MASS., May, 1906.
