Industrial Relations Court
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a tribunal established by the State of Kansas for adjudicating industrial disputes which involve the interests or welfare of the public. It consists of three judges, one of whom is appointed annually by the governor. In case of any controversy arising in certain specified industries, such as those concerned with the manufacture of foodstuffs or clothing, the production of fuel, transportation, or the public utilities, all of which are declared to be affected with a public interest, and in case such controversy shall reach the point where continuity or efficiency of service is endangered, the court is empowered to investigate the trouble and issue such orders as are necessary to preserve the public peace and welfare. It may order changes in conditions of labor, fix a minimum wage or a standard of wages, and its orders must be observed by the parties to the dispute, but with the right to have an immediate hearing on appeal to the Supreme Court. In case of suspension of operations in any of the industries covered by the law, the court is authorized to take legal measures for operating and controlling such industry through the emergency. The Industrial Relations Court has been widely discussed throughout the country, being upheld on one hand as the natural solution of the problem of injurious strikes and lockouts, and, on the other hand, being denounced as an interference with the rights of both capital and labor. In the number of cases brought before the court in 1920 and 1921, the complainants included labor unions, corporations, and State officials.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's described the court in 1921 as "widely discussed throughout the country," the Kansas Court of Industrial Relations was barely a year old, created in 1920 by Governor Henry Allen after the 1919 coal strike. Its central claim — that industries like meatpacking, fuel and clothing were "affected with a public interest" and so open to compulsory wage-setting — was rejected by the United States Supreme Court in Wolff Packing Co. v. Court of Industrial Relations (1923), which held the wage-fixing power a violation of due process; a second Wolff ruling in 1925 struck down its control of hours. The court was abolished in 1925 and its remaining duties folded into the state's public utilities commission, and no American state has since tried compulsory arbitration on that scale. The idea survives only as a much-cited episode in labor law and in the reach of the "affected with a public interest" doctrine, itself largely abandoned after 1934.
Written for this edition, 2026.