Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-05-01
TRADES UNIONS.
Striking Printers Convicted I'm .
Pennsylvania Court.

An important decision affecting trade
unions has just been delivered in Craw-
ford county, Pennsylvania. The proprie-
tors of the TjtUSriie Union newspaper,
refused to accede to certain demands of the
printers. The Union ordered q strike.
Non-UniOn men were sent for from Pitts
burgh. This fact having become known to
the Union, its officers issued a
circular in which they warned mem.
bers of the society everywhere not to
come to Titusville, and they also appointed
a committee whose duty it should be TO
prevent printers from taking work at the
Courier Office, duty which the committee
fulfilled, to the serious detrin1ent of the
proprietor. He, therefore, prosecuted the
printers for conspiracy; but at the first trial
the jury was unable to agree. Tried a
second time they were convicted. Part
of the charge of Judge Lowrie is repro
duced from the synopsis of the Pittsburgh
Commercial:
Taking up the particular combination
on trial, the Typographical Union, the
Judge called particular attention to several
articles of its constitution. According to
one of them, one object of the association
is the regulation of prices and all other
| things appertaining to the management of
| the printing business within its jurisdic-
tion.' The power thus claimed is, as the
Judge remarked, power which even the
Legislature cannot either give or exercise.
| The reason is obvious. Such a power
cannot be exercised without prejudice
to some portion of society, while it
would be dangerous to the freedom of ali
in the conduct of their business. But the
society which assumes this power holds its
| sessions in secret, without the presence of
an employer to represent the interest of his
class, and may attach any penalty it can
enforce to disregard Of its resolutions.
| Another object of the Union is ''the -egula-
| ton of the apprenticeship system" Hence
| an employer, under this regulation, is not
at liberty to place his own son as an APP
prentice in his own office, without the con-
sent of the Union. A strike may be the
penalty of independence. 'But," says
Judge Lowrie, ''no set Of men can be
allowed to interfere with your law
full plans of life, because they
| suppose that they thereby benefit their
own" The habit of the Union in stigma
tiZing expelled members with odious names,
etc, the Judge apparently regards as fea-
| ture of an unlawful combination. These
and other features of the Union were point
| ed out as an indication of its character, and
as affording certain assistance in inter-
preting the proceedings upon which the
charge of conspiracy was founded. The at
tempt of single person to injure others
| in their business is not criminal in the
eye of the law, though it may be the
cause of a civil action for damages.
But any attempt by combined numbers
of men to injure the lawful business of any
others with evident malicious intent is a
conspiracy and renders them liable to the
penalties of the law. 1t is, said Judge Low
RE, the combined intention to injure that
cOlors the act with criminality, and on the
evidence produced in the case before him,
the Judge thought that the combination to
do the act complained could hardly be
doubted. The jury agreed with him, and
as already stated, the printers Were Convict
ed of the otienses with which they were
! charged"