Reason, Contract, and Law in Labor Relations

OLMES did not have much occasion as judge to deal with lthe organization of labor and collective bargaining. But when he did, he stated what he called "the less popular view of the law." 1 To Holmes, our system of free enterprise and democratic government required the state, subject to the limitations of public order, to permit workers to organize and to extend their organization for the purpose of strengthening their bargaining position in the struggle for a better share in return for their services. Their shares were to be determined by the parties to the struggle, not by the state; and the state should not interfere so as to make the struggle unequal. Thus, when dealing with picketing to enforce a wage demand, he said in I896: