Morning journal and courier., 1886-07-28

Gl1o0en, the walking Delegate, fOI
 Libel Comes Up i'm the City Court
 Arguments Heard and the Judge Re.
 serves His Decision Until Sat arday.
 Promptly the City Hall clock struck eight yesterday morning Judge Deming took his seat on the judges bench in the City court. and Attorneys filling and Daley and Platt and Moran with Walking Delegate Glidden took their seats near the lawyers
 table. Judge Deming then opened court and the case for libel against Benjamin F. Glidden, brought by the State on complaint of the JOURNAL AND COURIER, was called
 MT. Platt said he thought there would be nc
 evidence during the morning.
 MT. Alling-Do you want to be heard ir srgumentsa
 MT. Platt-Certainly.
 Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Daley
 then arose and said: This is the case which
 has been postponed from time to time, and
 is that of the State vs. Benjamin F. Glidder
 for libel. He, after quoting from several
 law authorities as to what hbeling was, con-
 tinued: Glidden is charged with distribut,
 ing and publishing, June IS, the following circular, headed, "Facts for the People, and which went on to say as follows: ''The JOURNAL AND COURIER still an unfair sheet. ''Workingmen keep your eyes open," etc. This is the libel Of sheet of intimidation which on the day in question Glidden was distributing. There are three questions which come up: First, did Glidden distrib
 ute these circulars on said day, and second
 did he do it maliciously with intent to injure
 the JOURNAL AND COURIER, or did he not;
 i'd ici ,o& I0o12 Mr DoSI 14nj
 from authorities on what libel and intimida-
 tion are and said: I shall try to show later
 that besides intimidation there was threat.
 Glidden on the day in question is charged
 with committing an act against the proprie-
 tors of the JOURNAL AND COURIER in order
 to intimidate them by distributing these cir culars, which are libelous in themselves.
 Glidden is innocent or guilty. On June IS
 1t is admitted Glidden was @ Knight of Labor and working his jaw for
 them for about SIS a week.
 What did Glidden do to intimidate the JOUR
 NAL AND COURIER? It is offered by several
 witnesses for the State that he went to the
 advertisers of the JOURNAL AND COURIER and
 demanded them to take their advertisements
 from said JOURNAL AND COURIER. In
 two or three cases the men whom Glidden
 visited said: What will you do if we don't take them out? To which he replied, we will
 boycott you. Now, Glidden was all this time carrying concealed threat. He might not have said right out we shall boycott you, but implied as much, and we claim that this con cealed threat is intimidation. The circular says "the JOURNAL AND COURIER an unfair sheet" This warns people to keep away from said JOURNAL AND COURIER, as it would not treat them fairly. ''It is traitorous sheet ;" This holds the JOURNAL AND COURIER up, or Gidden holds it up to ridicule as agent of the libel and distributes it broadcast to citizens before the eyes of the public, and does much as he can to ruin the COURIER. He goes out into the streets night and day and distributes more or less of 10000 of these circulars as shown by witnesses. Can anyone say these circulars were not given out to intimidate and destroy the business of the JOURNAL AND COURIER? Is that the intent of Glidden on said day? and if so is it libel ous! I call your honor's attention to the conversation of Glidden at the different bus mess places, and the threats he made about their regretting it if they did not take their advertisements out of the JOURNAL AND COURIER. Now ask your honor to consider these things with the distribution of the cir cular in question. Now to show the intent of Glidden in the distribution of said circu- lars on the night in question and how he still intended to persist
 in the distributing of said circulars: MT. Glidden met Officer Mccarthy on said night and dared him to arrest him without war rant. Glidden then passed up Chapel street giving out circulars to one or two of the JOURNAL AND COURIER people, and then he goes to Officer Rice on the corner of Church and Chapel streets and asks him to arrest him as he wants to be martyr. He holds 8 short conversation with Officer Rice which results in Glidden being arrested, and to show that he meant to persist in giving out the circulars, on the way in he said he would be out again in fifteen minutes giving out the circulars again. He supposed there was no law to touch him, that he was disciple come from the Knights of Labor to ruin honest mems business, and that the police dare not touch him. Glidden tried to ruin the JoURzAL AND COURIER. Like a sleuth hound he followed the advertisers in said JOURNAL AND COURIER day and night with threats to make them take out their advertisements, and I believe we have shown the intent and persistency with which Glidden followed up the JOURNAL AND COURIER to inj jure and ruin it, and it seems to me that since he first started it was his intent to injure the JOURNAL AND COURIER. We ask if Glidden had the right on the day in question to in timidate the JOURNAL AND COURIER. Sup pose I were a member of the JOURNAL AND COURIER and Glidden should put one of those circulars in my face. l should try to knock him out, and I claim that such act of
 
 about all.
 MT. Moran opened for the defense He said the State must prove that the published matter was abusive and offensive and was published with malicious intent. He de6ed the State to prove either. He discussed at length the meaning of the language of the words used in the circular. He claimed that "unfair" sheet meant merely not a union sheet, and was so understood by all unions. He irstanced the use of fair and un- fair in the hatters' strike in Nor walk. He said that the COURIER was justly called traitorous sheet, a sheet that had gone over to the enemy. The JOURNAL AND COURIER had put itself in the list of papers that employ union printers and had then gone over to the non-union printers and broken it's contract. The brok en contract was still in existence. The CoUR- FER became a traitor when it broke the con tract The "honest labor'' of the circular meant union or organized labor. Every statement of the circular therefore was true in the sense in which the words of the circu- lar were evidently used. If statements are our State constitution. The very cross-ex animation of MT. Darlington proved the truth of the statement of the circular.
 Professor Platt closed for the defense. He deprecated the passion displayed in the pro- secution of this case, took exception to many or the statements made Dy MT. Daley, and denied the hearing by MT. filling. He ar gued for some time that Glidden had clearly the liberty under the law to refrain from pat ronizing the COURIER and to induce others to follow his example. He made some quo- tations from Judge Stoddard's charge to prove the rights of individuals in endeavor- ing to persuade others to do certain lawful act, and certainly nobody would call it ille- gal to refuse to patronize the COURIER.
 MT. Platt argued that, according to the re- ,e,nt charge of Judge Stoddard, Glidden 70 1ld have had no intent to injure the CoUR- FER. because he was doing only what he had ! legal right to do.
 Mr. Alling in his reply said that the news papers had announced that MT. Platt would make this claim, and he had therefore pre- pared written criticism of the "charge," most of which he read, and the whole of which was submitted to the court. It is as ollows:
 What, then, was Judge Stoddards charge, md how far does it affect the legality of the boycott, for it may be said at once that the harge does not sustain it's morality?
 First. It was recognized throughout the rial that the direct and immediate and in ended result of this boycott was to injure he business of the COURIER.
 Second. It is, of course, true that this boycott is intended to injure the COURIER, lot through any competition in business with the COURIER, but solely by compelling ts patrons to withdraw business from it