The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-01-17
JUDGE BLACK TO THE FRONT.

II Employers Can Unite, workIngmen
Have Legal Right to Combine.
The following letter was written to
| ID. r. Jones, Secretary of the Miners AS
soeiatiOn, who was under arrest, chArg-
ed with conspiracy:
YORK, Pa, Dec. 20, 1882.
MY DEAR SIR-l have Just received
/ your letter, but not the printed slips you
to be present at your trial, because |
have other engagements which are like
~ to prevent 1t. / must therefore de-
Cline any tender Of fees which would
bind me to act as your counsel.
do not see any constitutional queS-
tiOn In the cause as you state it,; but 1t
involves some points of criminal law,
which, though interesting, are easily
settled.
Any number of employers may COM
bine together and act in concert to re-
duce the wages of their wOrkmen, and
nobody has ever called that q cOnspira-
cy. But If the labOrers in a shop unite
to increase their wages, and threaten
to quit work unless they are better paid,
this, according to the old decisions in
England and America, is a criminal Of
Tense. More recent cases, however, lay
down the rule that q body of labOrers
may as lawfully say what they will take
as employers may determine what they
will give. Somewhat slowly, and with
evident reluctance, capitalists have suf-
fered the judicial mind to reach the con-
clusiOn that the employer does not ex-
actly own the workman. If, therefore,
the aim Of your association was nothing
worse than to put up the iprice of your
work to a satisfactory standard, and
to cOunteraet the natural tendency of
other interests to reduce 1t, you are in
noeent people, and the court will say
so.
L infer from your letter that you So
licited others to join with you and make
a demand for wages as high as your own
or else stop work. OThat was not wrong
either. If you had right to form an
association, you had an equal right to
get as many into it as you could so that
outsiders might not defeat its purpose
bycutting under.
But you did not cOnfine your member
ship or your influence to your immedi-
ate fellOw-wOrking together with you
in the employment Of the same master.
You went to another mine, owned by
other parties, and persuaded, or tried to
persuade, the under paid coal diggers
there that Justice to themselves as well
as to you required them to lay down
their, tools, unless they got the rates
generally receiVedtin the neighbor hood.
At first blush this looks like intermed-
ding with matter which did not con-
Germ you but in truth you had fair in
terest In it, because the acceptance of
smaller compensation by one man al
ways tends to depresS that of another.
Your resistance. to low wages was no
doubt weakened by the admission Of
those near you. This principle is un-
derstOOd by employees. If Scott and Gar
rett and Jewelt would agree to reduce
the wages of the labOrers on their rail
roads twenty per cent, Vanderbilt's re-
fusal to do the same would be a thing of
evil example in their eyes, and they
would exert all their influence to make
him come down to their level. Persons
engaged in common cause, whether it
be to raise or lower wages, are entitled
70 the! support OF others, ii they can get
1T by fair means.
they charge you, however, with get
ting or attempting to get, the concur
renee you wanted vi ct armis; that is to
say, by force of arms, If your assOcia-
ttOn went to the other mine in a body,
or sent a very large delegation, 1t was
not any worse than any other big meet
ing, unless you behaved with unlawful
violence. Our institutions and habits
rather encourage the peaeeable show of
numbers as a means Of persuasion. All
organizations, political, religious and
Charitable, resort to it. But you went
there, or said you would go, with brass
band, do not think this implied ViO-
lence or any threat of violence. A trums
pet or trombone is not deadly weap-
on, and music is not essentially wicked,
or else 1t would not be used as it always
Is in church and camp-meetings.
In addition to these charges Of con-
spiracy and riot, you are accused, as /
understand you, of bribery. The miners
whom you were trying to convert to
your way of thinking, had agreed they
would forfeit ten dollars apiece IL they
did not work a full year at the wages
previously agreed upon between them
and their employers. This penalty for
accepting your doctrine and acting upon
it. they could not pay without assist
anee. Your assistance offered to give
them the necessary aid.I This does not
come within any common law or statu-
tory ,dehpi pition Of bribery that L know of.
/ may have miscQnceived this whole
case. If have, it Is your fault. I take
the facts as l gather them from your
statement, and 1t. does not profess to be
perfect or full. But assuming it to be
pEOximately correct, as a general out
line, you are certainly in no danger of
even being tried, for the district attOr-
ney Is gentleman much too sensible to
ask q conviction on such grounds.
am very trulyyOur Obedient servant,
j. 8. BLACK.