The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1902-10-17
CONTENTION OF OPERATORS.


Having failed to make good their
claim that if given proper protection
they could resume operations in the
mines, the operators yesterday sprung
a new proposition upon President
Roosevelt. AS was stated in tele-
gram from Washington, published in
The Free Press, the operators requested
the president to proceed against the
Miners union in the courts on the
ground that the organization is in a
conspiracy to prevent interstate CON-
merce. President Roosevelt has turned
the letter from David Wilcox over to
Attorney General Knox.
1t is claimed by the operators that
the Miners Union is an unlawful
organization, that the Debs case. is a
precedent The letter sent by Mr..
Wilcox is filled with citations of cases
that he asserts are in line with the
present difficulty The Sherman anti
trust act is quoted as follows:
1.-The statute of July 3, 1890, gen.
orally known as the Sherman act.
provides that every contract, combi-
nation in the form of trust or other
wise, or conpsiracy in restraint OF
trade or commerce among the several
states or with foreign nation is here
by declared to be illegal. Commerce
among the states begins when the
subjects thereof begin to move to their
place of destination and ends when
they are sold. The question, there
fore, is whether the mine workers
combination constitutes restraint
upon such commerce The view that
it does not is based upon the conten-
ton that this combination affects only
production of coal within the states
and not shipments of coal from one
state to another. 1t is submitted that
this distinction is without foundation
in the law or the facts.
1.-THE authority in support of this
view upon which reliance is princi-
pally placed in the case of United
States VS.. D. @. Knight Co. 156 q. S.
1. In that case several sugar refineries
in Pennsylvania had been united into
one organization. The court held that
this consolidation of interests did not
come within the statute because it
affected merely the process of manu-
facture and had no necessary effect
upon the shipment of the manufac-
tured product out of the state. 1t will
be seen that these facts were widely
different from those involved in the
present case.
THE coal of the country is the most
important subject of its interstate
commerce. The mine workers associ-
alton consists of combination Of
persons employed in the production of
coal in many states of the union. The
object and effect are 70 control the
terms upon which this subject of in
terstate commerce may be produced
at all either for state shipment. Its
direct and necessary effect is that no
coal shall be shipped anywhere within
the country unless it so permits. This
combination. therefore, not merely
restraints but destroys interstate com
merce by preventing the existence of
the subject matter of such commerce
of general public interest and import
ance. No more effective or radical re-
straint of interstate commerce could
be imagined The Delaware g. Hud-
son company was chartered by the
state of New York on April 90, 1928.
for the purpose, as expressed in its
charter of furnishing to the state
of New York supply of coal found
in the state of Pennsylvania. AS the
result Of the mine workers organiza-
tion this Interstate commerce of this
corporation has been for the time be-
ing in great part destroyed. Obviously
combination which has the direct
effect upon an established interstate
business is in every sense restraint
thereon.
Mr.. Wilcox has about settled the
question in his own mind that the
miner union is combination to re-
strain trade and holds that a legal
action would lie against it's members.
Mr.. Wilcox represents the Delaware
q Hudson Railroad company.