Charles Evans Hughes

“ With respect to the federal power to protect interstate commerce in the commodities produced, there is obviously no difference between coal mined, or stone quarried, and fruit and vegetables grown. The same principle must apply, and has been applied, to injurious restraints of interstate trade which are caused by the practices of manufacturers and processors. ”

“ The direct relation of the labor practices and the resulting labor dispute in the instant case to interstate commerce and the injurious effect upon that commerce are fully established. The warehousemen in question were employed by petitioner in loading its goods either into the cars of carriers or into the trucks which transported the goods to the docks for shipment abroad or to other states. The immediacy of the effect of the forbidden discrimination against these warehousemen is strikingly shown by the findings of the Board. ”

“ The question that must be faced under the act upon particular facts is whether the unfair labor practices involved have such a close and substantial relation to the freedom of interstate commerce from injurious restraint that these practices may constitutionally be made the subject of federal cognizance through provisions looking to the peaceable adjustment of labor disputes.
The question of degree is constantly met in other relations. ”

“ Such injurious action burdening and obstructing interstate trade in manufactured articles may spring from labor disputes irrespective of the origin of the materials used in the manufacturing process. And the place where the manufacturer makes his sales is not controlling if the sales in fact are in interstate commerce. ”

“ It is met whenever the Interstate Commerce Commission is required to find whether an intrastate rate or practice of an interstate carrier causes an undue and unreasonable discrimination against interstate or foreign commerce. ”

“ The Board found that interference with the activities of employees in forming or joining labor organizations results in strikes and industrial unrest which habitually have had the effect in the canning industry of impeding the movement of canned products in interstate and foreign commerce. ”

“ Petitioner contends that the manufacturing and processing in which petitioner is engaged are local activities, and that the Board was without jurisdiction over the labor dispute involved in this case.
First. There is no question that petitioner was directly and largely engaged in interstate and foreign commerce. We have often decided that sales to purchasers in another state are not withdrawn from federal control because the goods are delivered f.o.b. ”

“ There is thus no point in the instant case in a demand for the drawing of a mathematical line. And what is reasonably clear in a particular application is not to be overborne by the simple and familiar dialectic of suggesting doubtful and extreme cases. ”

“ During the 'peak' season, petitioner employs from 1,200 to 1,500 persons, of whom about 30 are warehousemen. The total 'pack' in the year 1935 amounted to about 1,699,270 cases. Of this amount about 37 per cent. were shipped in interstate or foreign commerce, 9.02 per cent. being sent to foreign countries and approximately 473,620 cases, or about 27.89 per cent. to various points in the United States outside California. The sales to purchasers outside the state were under either f.o.b. ”

“ These (meaning the Schechter and Carter) cases are not controlling here.' The later decisions of this Court involving the power of Congress to deal with labor relations in local production do not refer to the Carter Case. At least until this Court definitely overrules that decision, it should be followed. ”

“ When the men found themselves locked out because of their joining the union, they at once formed a picket line, and this was maintained with such effectiveness that eventually 'the movement of trucks from warehouse to wharves ceased entirely.' The teamsters refused to haul, the warehousemen at the dock warehouses declined to handle, and the stevedores between dock and ship refused to load, petitioner's goods. ”

“ Carter Coal Co., 298 U.S. 238, 56 S.Ct. 855, 80 L.Ed. 1160, decided that Congress lacks power to regulate terms and conditions of employment of those engaged in local production of commodities sold and about to be shipped in interstate commerce. The Circuit Court of Appeals found two questions for solution. One was whether upon that point the Carter Case, in 1936, has been overruled by our decision in 1937 in National Labor Relations Board v. ”