The Daily Morning Journal And Courier

The proposed new German bill against strikes, which has just been laid before the Reichstag, is a less stringent measure than it was expected to be from the speech of the emperor, in which it was first mentioned last year. It prescribes the punishment of "penal servitude" only in exceptional cases. That punishment may be imposed when the result of acts of intimidation or of incitement have led to a strike or a lock-out which endangers the security of the empire or of a German state, or which imperils the security of life or of property. In such cases the culprits may be sentenced to a maximum term of three years, and the ringleaders to a maximum term of five years' penal servitude. Of mere incitement to striking nothing is said in the bill. The existing law on the subject of association and intimidation inflicts a penalty of three months' imprisonment upon any one who, by the exercise of physical force, by menaces or by attacks upon personal honor, endeavors to induce any one to participate in or to abstain from association for the purpose of obtaining better conditions of work or wages. The new bill gives a somewhat wider definition of the offense, and extends the penalty to a maximum term of one year's imprisonment, with the alternative, where there are mitigating circumstances, of a maximum fine of 1,000 marks ($250). The new clause applies to undue pressure brought to bear upon employers or employed to induce them to withhold work from certain categories of workpeople. Professional strike-agitators are menaced with a penalty of three months' imprisonment. Picketing is expressly included in the definition of "physical force" as applied for purposes of intimidation. On the other hand, it is left open to employers or employed to agree among themselves whether they will employ or work for certain categories of persons.