Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-04-06
VERDICT FOR $2500
Found Against a Labor Union
at Rutland, Vt.
Firm Sued tsrs1o, Damages Done
Their Business by Members.
First Case Of kind-The Defendants
Enter an Appeal.

Rutland. VT, April 5.-The jury in
the case of the suit OF the F. r. Patch
Manufacturing Co. VS.. Protection
Lodge 215, International Association of
Machinists. Saturday, returned a ver-
dict in favor Of plaintiffs for $500. The
jury was out 20 hours.
The firm sued for $4,000 for dam
ages said to have been caused their
business by the alleged Illegal acts of
the members of the lodge, who went
on strike at the Patch plant, May 20
last. The defendants entered an APP
peal
The plaintiffs brought an action for
damages on the ground that the de-
PENDANT organization Of machinists, of
which the strikers are members, in
Inundated non-union men and prevent
ed them from filling the positions made
vacant by the strikers. The plaintiffs
contended that they were forced to
maintain a boarding house for the nom
union employees, and that they were
obliged to protect them by hiring pri-
vaite police. The case aroused great
interest in labor circles, not only in
Vermont. but throughout the rest OF
New England.
The strike of which the suit for dam
ages was the outcome affected also the
Lincoln Iron Works, at which place,
as well as at the Patch plant, the ma
chinists refused to work longer unless
the two concerns recognized the union.
It was not long after the beginning OF
the strike that both the Lincoln and
Patch companies made plans TO engage
Eon-urion help, and soon began to car
nv out their plans. The Patch Com
pany had agencies at Boston and New
York. and both of these agencies fur
nislIed machinists to come to Rutland.
According to the evidence introduced
by the plaintiffs, the defendant union
in various ways tried to block the at
tempt of the Patch Company to put
the new men at work. One method
adopted was that of having a delega-
ton of union men meet the foreign
workmen at some point outside of Rut-
laad. and there try to discourage them
from coming to Rutland, and If this
failed in it's purpose, to threaten them
with harm If they insisted on coming
to work for the Patch Company.
The answer of the lodge to this con-
tention was that if the union men Wis
tied these imported workmen and
threatened them, they did so as indi-
viduals.
An interesting feature of the trial
was the disappearance of John E.
Capeless, the secretary of the union
AMI Secretary c. r. Mexican of the
Central Trade and Labor Council. Not
only did the secretaries themselves dis
appear, but their books, too, could not
bc found.
The absence Of those records was
made the subject of comment by Judge
Hazclton in his charge to the jury
yesterday. The justice declared thai
the plaintiff had a right to have the
records produced, and he further said
to the jury that if they found that the
defendant after having been notified tt
produce the books and papers, failed
to do So they were to have right tc
presume that these books and papers
would make for the case of the plain
tiff
Another interesting point in the
charge of the presiding justice was his
emphasis of the finding of the anthra-
cite strike commission with reference
to the right of every man to work fol
whom he pleascs without interference
of any kind. On the other hand, the
Judge held that the members of the de.
PENDANT union had an undeniable riShl
to strike