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For Wilentz, the admittedly heavy-handed use of

National Guardsmen to restore order was nothing more than

the "paraphernalia of dictatorship" employed against WFM

militants merely "defend[ing] themselves and their jobs."

Thus, a story of union officials who likely conspired to

assassinate a former governor for stopping their violent

campaign against nonunion labor becomes a morality play in

which both sides were morally equivalent.  For Brinkley,

speaking on the Newshour with Jim Lehrer on October 24,

1997, the lesson from the Steunenberg case was "the dan-

gers to democracy of rapidly increasing inequality that

goes unaddressed for too long."

This modern willingness to downplay union violence is

not new.  It can be traced back to a jury in Caldwell,

Idaho, responding to Clarence Darrow's appeal to "higher

issues" by acquitting Bill Haywood.  From such rationali-

zations, we have come to the point in this country aptly

summarized in 1960 by Friedrich A. Hayek:

[W]e have now reached a state where they [labor

unions] have become uniquely privileged institu-

tions to which the general rules of law do not

apply.  They have become the only important

instance in which governments fail in their prime

function--the prevention of coercion and vio-

lence.16

The failure of local, state, and federal law enforce-

ment to prohibit union officials' extortionate activity

during strikes is confirmed by the National Institute for

Labor Relations Research in their database of reported

union-related violence going back some 20 years.  How that

state of affairs came to be, the extent of the problem,

and the possible remedies are the subjects of this analy-

sis.

History of Judicial Involvement

After several field hearings in 1933, the Copeland

special subcommittee of the Senate committee on Interstate

Commerce introduced 13 bills targeting organized crime,

including the Anti-Racketeering Act.  As passed by the

House and Senate, the act made it a felony to obtain money

or other "valuable consideration" by the use or threat of

force, violence, or coercion.  Exempt from the act was

extortion either unconnected to interstate commerce or

involving "the payment of wages by a bona fide employer to

a bona fide employee."17