Morning journal and courier., 1886-07-17
from decisions on what he understood to be

At 3:15 MT. Platt comm enced the closing argument for the defense. He said in his opening argument that, after the opening argument of his associates, he did feel that there was but very little for him to say. He said he felt it his duty to object to the sen 1 for counsel for the State, who, at this late hour, brought in authorities which he had | had no time to counsel or consider He | thought it was not fair. Proceeding he said: What is all this matter that has caus- ! ed so much talk2 What have these men | done that they should be brought into ! courta What is all this about9 What | have these men done that they should be l characterized as they have been by the | learned gentlemen for the State? Are not l these men as respectable as any of usa venture to say that had this case been con l ducted by the learned gentlemen selected by | the State we should not have heard so much of this vituperation against my clients. | What have these men dona2 again ask. | They have combined together and formed | union for their own protection. Other trades
 combine and they have right to, and such l organizations should be continued and em- l ployers should also organize, and then there can be mutual consideration of each others
 interests and there will be a better state of
 affairs among the employers and the | employed It is not bad, but a very wholesome thing for men
 to thus combine together for their own pro- tection.
 Mr. Platt then went over the evidence from | the beginning of the controversy; he referred | to the preliminary steps leading up to the acts which led to the arrest of the accused. He said it was no wonder that these men felt ! that they had not been honorably dealt with. Continuing, he said that there had nothing | been done that was illegal and that they had | not been guilty of any unlawful conduct l whatever. He said the acts committed were not half so fierce as those often carried on by l in, hna a great many acts that could be done lawfully | that we disapprove, and we had to depend
 upon public opinion to correct the evils
 complained of. He contended that no loss
 had been sustained by the complainants in 1 any case. It did not appear that anyone
 had in any degree been harmed, and if they
 had been the accused would only be amen | able to civil action. Concluding, he said:
 Trusting that you will acquit all of these | gentlemen leave the case with you so far as | l am concerned.
 At 4 o'clock John w. filling commenced
 the concluding argument for the State. In
 rising to speak Mir. filling said: Gentlemen l of the jury: It has been said on the other
 side that Judge Blydenburgh and myself are
 employed by the Darlington Publishing com | pany to try this case. We are here, gentle
 men, to get at the facts in this case and so pre- ! sent them for your intelligent consideration Pthat you will be able to arrive at just con- clusion in the case. The other side seems to ! think that we are here to quarrel | with organized labor This is not so, gentlemen, and we ask you to l leave this statement all out of the ques tion. So far from depending upon ancient l law in the trial of this case, we have in l Swift's digest all the law that is necessary in | the trial of this case. If Mir. Russell had read 1 the law bearing on this case, he would have 1 found that the law does not fix the penalty absolutely to five years in State prison; it may be imp1 isonment in jail, or it may be ] simply fine, according to the nature of the defense. Let us see where we stand in this case.
 When the COURIER printers came to the ! proprietors of the latter paper and told them | they wanted to join the union, MT. Caring ton replied that they were capable men and l could join if they wanted to. It was an- l nounced in public that the Typographical l union wanted these men to apply for admis- sion and presented an agreement to that | effect and asked each one of the COURIER printers to sign it. Gleason refused to put l up his money and go into the union. Me | Namara put up Gleasons S1 for admission to the union so that he could be proposed
 and blaekballed. The COURIER printers on l March 18th in letter say that though on the | 11th inst. we said we would join the union, l yet having learned that portion of our num- | Der would not be received we had decided not to go in unless all were admitted. Now, gentlemen of the jury, I am sorry to argue | to you that the Typographical union has got l greater rights than either you or l. Hadn't the COURIER men right to say we shall con- sider the rejection of one as the rejection of ali, and can the Typographical union look anyone in the face and say that was breach of contract? Now what is organized labora It should be as Catholic as the Catholic church, and do you call it organized labor that these men should be followed and persecuted to the
 end of their dayss I call that disorganized
 labor. Now, gentlemen, there is more at
 stake in this case according to a persons private and public rights than there is in
 murder case. On March 19 Glidden called
 at the COURIER office to see about Skinner,
 who had been there as foreman. While
 there Mir. Pratt said to him that he heard
 they did not intend to allow all the
 COURIER men to come into
 the Typographical union and that
 they could not stand that MT. Darlington
 would take the letter. The letter said that
 all the printers could join the union, but that they must be allowed to remain in the office and all of them must be taken into the union or none. This is all right on the CoUR- 1ERs part. They make application to the union for admission at the request of said union, and then hear that they are to be re-
 jected, and decide not to go in. The CoUR- TER did as they had right to do.
 G3liddsenn, MeNamara and Mailhouse,
 
 called at the office at 9 o'clock
 the same evening when MT. Baldwin, MT.
 Conklin and MT. Darlington were in the of fee, and no living witness has testified against the testimony of MT. Darlington on
 that night, which was corroborated by MT. Baldwin and MT. Conklin. MT. McNamara said: MT. Darlington, we don't understand
 this; we wish you would reconsider your let
 ter. MT. Glidden said: The union voted be-
 fore the receipt of your letter to accept four
 of your men. MT. Skinner can remain and
 have 8 frame, but cannot be foreman; the
 rest must go. Putnam and the two boys we
 shall not interfere with. We don't wage war
 on old men and boys. Glidden then
 said: You had better reconsider your action.
 MT. Darlington said we could not. Glidden then said: We'll, I'm sorry for you. Weshall have to put on the boycott. I suppose you have watched the course of the boycott on the News. MT. McNamara said: We don't want any more boycotting if we can help it. It took us eighteen months to beat the News. Prof. Farnam is a plucky man, but he had to give in. It may take us longer to beat the l COURIER, but we shall stick to it until we do. 1
 What had that COURIER done against Gid l den or the Typographical union that they | should say this3 They then sent for Skin- l ner to come to Mailhouse's office, 1 and there he met GIdden and Mo ] Namara, and what took place there | was Gu6 LHOSG budi2oIuI tIluS ever dOuIGGcu as testimony in this court. Mir. filling then cited Skinner's testimony of what occurred there. Is it so that these men, Glidden and McNamara, own MT. Skinners Is it so that they own the JOURNAL AND CoURIERl If it is this way I am not my own master nor you yours. Is it so that Glidden. McNamara or any other man can come and say what I must do, and if I don't that he will follow me around the world, if necessary, and re- duce me to povertys If it is, God save this country. The News did submit | to these men by arbitration and were brought to terms by Glidden, McNamara and these men and it shows that Skinner thought the COURIER would have ts submit. That meant to Skinner and his five children want and poverty if he could not get into the Typo graphical union, as these men hoped to down the COURIER the same was as they did the News. Now, gentlemen, propose to show that these men were conspirators and how. The main purpose of these men was to drive ! put the printers of the COURIER, purely out of spite They had no fight with the COURIER except that the COURIER employed those printers whom they wanted to turn out be- cause these men were not union men, and they couldn't be, they had applied for ad- mission and been blackballed. They then u led 10 make the COURIER come to terms by pecu- 1 niary loss so that they could get these prin- ;ers out. This is where the conspiracy comes yTlI- Jo o1Ix |