Society's Judge

Federal Judge T. Alan Goldsborough, who has twice cut John Lewis down to human size, gave the railway brotherhoods a piece of his mind last week. He made permanent his temporary order prohibiting the railway firemen, engineers and switchmen from going on strike.

Judge Goldsborough rejected any argument that the Norris-La Guardia anti-injunction law made the order illegal. Although the railway brotherhoods are exempt from the Taft-Hartley Act, Judge Goldsborough applied the philosophy of that act, which permits injunctions.

If railroad workers were allowed to strike, he said, "hunger would stalk the United States, the whole political and economic system would be upset. . . and our influence in the world would be a laughingstock." There were limits to how far any law could be used when the public welfare was at stake. A railway strike would create "an extreme situation which society is not required to tolerate."

The injunction presumably would apply until the railway wage dispute has been settled. It was no nearer settlement last week than it was eight weeks ago, when Judge Goldsborough issued his temporary order and the Army took over nominal operation of the roads. The engineers, firemen and switchmen still wanted more than double the 15 1/2-c--an-hour raise which a fact-finding board had recommended as a fair settlement. Their demands were louder than ever now because, they said, even while they had been arguing, the cost of living had gone up. The conductors and trainmen, who had accepted the 15 1/2-c- increase last fall, were also whistling down the track again. They had decided that the time had come to demand another 25% boost.

But this was no business of Goldsborough's. His only concern was in forestalling a "process which will disintegrate society,"--i.e., a railway strike.

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