; the laborers
working for a year or two at the rates paid by the city and then,
after discharge, bringing suit and claiming that they had not been
paid the "usual rate" of the trade; and as there were very heavy
penalties, it is said to have cost the city of New York many millions
of dollars. In the same way the union idea of having all trades under
the control of an organization was carried to its extreme result in
the Middle Ages also, so that the guilds became all-powerful; they
imposed their rules and regulations to such an extent that it was
almost impossible for any man to get employment except by their
permission and under their regulation, or without membership. They
naturally developed into wealthy combinations, more of employers than
of journeymen, until they ended as the richly endowed dinner-giving
corporations that we see in the city of London to-day. In France, at
least, they were considered the greatest menace to labor, and were all
swept away at the time of the French Revolution amid the joy of the
masses and the pealing of bells. Unfortunately, our labor leaders are
sometimes scornful of history and unmindful of past example; the
fact that a thing has been tried and failed or has, in past history,
developed in a certain manner, carries no conviction to their minds.

(1444) A servant in husbandry had to give six months' notice before
leaving and wages were again fixed; and in 1452, the time of Jack
Cade's Rebellion, one finds the first prototype of "government
by injunction," that is to say, of the interference by the lord
chancellor or courts of equity with labor and the labor contract,
particularly in times of riot or disorder.

But the first trace of this practice, now obnoxious to many under
the phrase quoted, dates back to 1327, when King Edward III found it
necessary to adopt some more effectual measures of police than those
which already existed. For this purpose justices of the peace were
first instituted throughout the country with power to take security
for the peace and bind over parties who threatened offence.[1] Fifty
years later, in the reign of Richard II, it was found necessary to
provide further measures for repressing forcible entries on lands.
The course of justice was interrupted and all these provisions were
rendered in a great degree ineffectual by the lawless spirit of the
times. The Statute of 1379 recites that "our Sovereign Lord the King
hath perceived ... that divers of his