Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1892-10-15
ACCUSED OF TREASON.


Chief Justice Paxton's Charge to the
Grand Jury at Pittsburgh - No Excuse
for Violence at Homestead - Corpora
tions Have the Right to Import Armed
Guards.
PITTSBURGH, Pa, Oct. 11.-Chief JUS
tice Paxton, of the state supreme court,
at 10 a. m. charged the grand jury in
the treason cases against the Home
stead strikers The charge contained
over 5000 words and embraced agraph-
ic resume of the circumstances leading
up to the riot at the Carnegie Home
stead mill and the subsequent charges
of treason lodged against thirty-three
union men. Justice Paxton said:
"We can have some sympathy with mob
driven to desperation by hunger, as in the days
Of the French revolution, but we can find none
for men receiving exceptionally high wages in
resisting the law and resorting to violence and
bloodshed in the assertion of imaginary rights
and entailing such q vast expense upon the tax
payers of the commonwealth. 1t was not a cry
Tor bread TO feed their famishing lips, resulting
In sudden outrage, with good provocation; II
was deliberate attempt by men without
authority to control others in the enjoyment
Of their rights" "
In defining the law, Justice Paxton
said:
when the company shut down its works and
discharged its men 1t was acting strictly in the
lines OF the law; 1t could not compel the men TO
work nor could the men compel the company to
employ them; no arrangement could be
made in such regard except in the
nature of contract agreed upon by
the parties. Upon this subject their rights
were mutual. The company had the undoubted
right to protect its property for this purpose it
could lawfully employ as many men as it saw
proper and arm them II necessary. The right
OF the men was to refuse to work unless their
terms were aceedcd TO and persuade others to
Join them in such refusal, but the law will sus-
tain them no further The moment they at
tempt TO control the works, and to prevent
by violence or threats of violence other laborers
from going to work, then they placed them
selves outside the pale of the law. 1t cannot be
tolerated for moment that one laborer shall
say to another laborer: You shall not work for
this man for that wage without my consent
and then enforce such command by brutal vio-
lence upon his person
You will observe that the offense charged is
treason against the state, and not against the
United States; it is n matter with which the
latter has nothing to do and over which it can
have no jurisdiction. A mere mob, collected
upon the impulse of the moment. without any
definite object beyond the qualification of its sud-
den passions, does not commit treason, although
1t destroys property and attacks human life.
buI Wnen u large NUMBER OF men arm ana or
yanize themselves and engage in q COM
mon purpose to defy the law, to resist
Its officers and deprive their felow-ci citi-
Iens of the rights to which they are en-
titled under the constitution and laws, it
Is leying OF war against the state and the
ofense is treason. Where body of men
nave organized for reasonable purpose every
step which any one of them takes in part ex-
ecution of their common purpose is an overt
act OF treason. Every member of such asserted
government who has participated in such
usurpation has committed treason against the
state"
He closed by saying:
1--WE have reached the point in the history of
the state where there are but two roads for us
to pursue. The one leads to order and good
| government; the other leads to anarchy. The
| one great question which concerns the people
of thu country is the enforcement of the law
and the preservation Of order"
When Justice Paxton announced that
| it was not necessary that only the COM
monwealth be inveighed against for
one to be guilty of treason, that it is
proper for any firm or corporation to
hire guards from any state whatsoever
and arm such guards, the faces of de-
PENDANTS heightened perceptibly. The
instructions fell among them as a
lSnell. There seems to be little doubt
| that true bills will be returned. And if
true bills be returned there is little
doubt that several of the strikers will
be convicted.
PITTSBURGH, Pa, Oct. 1.-THE labor
troubles of the last six months are held
to be largely responsible for recent
business failures among the Hebrews
in the Wylie avenue district. Within
the last week the sheriff has attached
his bills of sale to six dry goods and
notion stores in that section. The
whole system seems to have been one
of credit. Little capital was invested
by many of the dealers. All depended
on their income from sales to NEE,
their payments. The amount involved
by these failures is over $500,