The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1895-01-23
ASSAILS THE PROSECUTION.
Forged and Perjured Evidence Given
to the Jury.
BOUGHT BY THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC.
10 Proof That the Agreement TO Boycott
Pullman Was a Conspiracy to
ObStruet the Mails.

There was standing room only" in the
United States District Court yesterday
morning when Attorney Monteith began
the defense of the strikers indicted for con-
spring to obstruct mails and interfere with
commerce between the States. Monteith
was pale, husky and haggard. Weeks OF
unremitting toll are telling on his slender
frame and before the day was done he was
too i'll to continue, and the trial was adj
journed to this morning.
Among the multitude of spectators in the
courtroom were: Hatch, recently acquitted
of the charge of being accessory to the
murder of Sam Clark; Knox, the leader of
the Sacramento strikers, and Roberts, who
headed the Oakland division of the army
of workingmen against the Southern Pa
cifc. There were prominent members OF
the labor councils of this city and Oakland
and liberal sprinkling of railroad detect
ives and spoilers.
Monteith reviewed the Indictment charg-
ing the defendants with conspiracy and
with committing overt acts in pursuance
of their alleged plot to obstruct and delay
the United States mails. The Govern
ment, he insisted, was not only obliged to
show acts of conspiracy bnt to prove that
the intention of the strikers from the out
set was to delay the mails. This the prose-
cutting attorney and his witnesses had
absolutely failed to do.
ST will show" said Monteith, "that the
alleged conspiracy of the American Rail-
way Union throughout the country against
the Pullman company was not partici-
pated in by these defendants or the unions
of which they were members. | will show
that the Oakland division of the railway
employees did not strike with the people in
the East. / will prove that their action
because four of their members had been
discharged without cause.
81 will show" cried the lawyer, his voice
rising into high key, "that Johnnie Sher-
burne, the boy whose testimony caused
poor crazy Worden to be convicted of MUIR
der, is a liar and that his evidence was false.
l assert that the Government backed by
the Southern Pacific, has railroaded that
poor crazy fellow to the gallows and will
was the work of the Southern Pacific and
that it annoyed and leased and urged on
the strikers to commit overt acts"
Attorney Monteith admitted that the de-
PENDANTS helped to kill two engines, but
that was no part of conspiracy and they
did not know that a mailcar was attached
to either of the locomotives. He reminded
the Jurors CnaI In6y were trying one OF Jno
greatest cases in history and that in giving
their verdict they would decide whether or
not men may any longer in this free coun-
try combine to resist oppression.
81 propose to show by respectable wit
nesses," said the intensely excited lawyer,
'that the greater portion of the evidence
used by the prosecution was perjury pur-
chased by the Southern Pacific. / will
prove that forged and altered kilograms
we're produced in evidence, and that a con-
spiracy existed between the Southern Pa
cifc to prosecute these defendants and
others to make an example of them and
hold their fate as whip over the heads of
other workingmen, so that they will never
again dare to organize for protection"
Striker Roberts was called to the stand
and testified that the union of which he
was president never dreamed of conspiracy
to delay the mails. When the strike was
ordered it refused to handle Pullman cars,
and some of its members were discharged.
Special Attorney Foote objected to this
line of examination, but Monteith was
sustained by Judge Morrow and the wit
ness resumed his narrative. He was tell
ing of an interview between the head of
the union and railway official, when
Monteith declared that he was too i'll to
proceed, and at the request of Mr.. Foote
the case went over until to-day.