Suttin v. Unity Button Works, Inc.

Research project conducted from 1928 to 1936, directed by Paul F. Brissenden, professor of economics, Columbia University, assisted by Cleon O. Swayzee, and funded by the Columbia University Council for Research in the Social Sciences.

By systematically analyzing 1000 New York State court cases from 1898 to 1929 in which injunction relief was sought to settle labor disputes, researchers attempted to derive historical judicial policy on injunction usage (in contexts of industrial, socio-economic and geographical conditions) as well as its effects upon the public and parties involved. A further purpose of the study was to make recommendations for changes in public policy in light of research findings.

Administrative records of this project include grant proposals, financial records re project expenditures, interim progress reports (1929-1935) and a summary report (1937). Also correspondence with participating attorneys and with Edwin Witte (Wisconsin Free Library).

The largest part of the collection consists of six hundred and twenty case files, organized by case name, reproduced from New York State county clerk records and those of participating attorneys. Cases fall into four general categories: 1) employer vs. union; 2) union vs. employer; 3) interunion; 4) non-labor. Case files typically include trial transcripts, appeals, legal documents, notes, clippings, correspondence, and supporting documents such as responses of attorneys to questionnaires on economics, procedure and practice. Examples of acts frequently restrained include picketing, labor violence, boycotts, strikes, use of scabs, refusal to submit to labor dispute settlement by an impartial chairman, layoffs, unfair labor practices, use of individual contracts and yellow dog contracts.

Union background files cover labor unions involved in New York State injunction cases, arranged by major industrial sectors (food, clothing, shoes, and building workers and laundry drivers). Files also include a list of New York State injunction cases by major industrial union, constitutions, bylaws, broadsides, trade union publications, employment contracts, collective agreements, and clippings. There are two manuscript volumes summarizing the cases studied.

General background materials accumulated for the project include manuscripts by Albert Fribourg, International Juridical Association, and manuscript notes, pamphlets and clippings on the following subjects: use of the injunction by federal and state courts, anti-injunction law, yellow dog contracts, collective agreements, and work contracts.

Anti-injunction legislation materials include drafts of bills and correspondence re the Shipstead and Blaine Bills (Anti-Injunction Act, 1932), between Brissenden, Herman Oliphant, Felix Frankfurter, Francis Sayre, William Green, Edwin E. Witte, William D. Mitchell, President Herbert Hoover, and George W. Norris. Correspondence concerns judicial procedure and practice, legislation to define and limit jurisdiction of courts in labor disputes, trial by jury in cases of direct criminal attempts, and equity courts. Also, drafts of legislation in effect in Arizona, Illinois, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin; correspondence and memoranda concerned with legislation before the New Jersey Chancery (1935) and New York State Legislature (1917-1935).

Also included are manuscripts of reports derived from the study, including studies dealing with the injunctive process, rules of procedure, and legal disposition of cases, as well as statistical tables summarizing the data gathered by Brissenden.

Also included are scrapbooks of clippings on the New Deal period concerned with the U.S. Public Works Administration, unemployment relief measures for women, artists, youth, white collar workers, strikes by Work Projects Administration employees and cooperative exchange of goods and services.