The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-09-29
VICTORY IS WON OVER
ANTI.DOYCOTT[RS
American Federation of Labor
and United Hatters Sued in
Vain Thus Far.

BRIDGEPORT, Conn, Sept 28.-A
temporary victory was scored today by
the defendants in the suit of D. E.
Loewe & Co.. hat makers in Danbury,
who are backed by the American Anti
Boycott association, against the Off
GERS of the American Federation of
Labor the officers of the United Hat
tiers of North America and $50 mem
bers of the United Hatters as individu-
ais. After a hearing before Judge
Wheeler, of the superior court, the
amount of attachment was reduced to
100000. This was very substantial
reduction, as the real estate covered
by the attachment is held at an as
sessed valuation of $128,000, and the
bank accounts of the individual de-
PENDANTS aggregate $4,000.
This hearing was on a motion by
counsel for the defendants for the re-
duction of the amount of attachment
for an order for the substitution of a
bond for the property attached and
for an order requiring the oral ex-
animation of the members of the firm
of D. E. Loewe & Co. as to the actual
amount of damage sustained by the
firm in consequence of the strike and
boycott.
Attorney Daniel Davenport, chief
counsel for the American Anti-Boycott
association, offered as a response to
the motion an affidavit sworn to by
himself as to the amount of damage
sustained. The affidavit, in effect,
was:
That the plaintiff, in the year end
ing Aug. 1, 1902, had sold their prod
uct in seventeen states, and had col
lected therefor $4,000, and that the
condition of business at that date was
such as to warrant the belief that it's
volume would be even greater in the
year ending Aug. 1, 1903, except for
the injury sustained through the acts
of the defendants as alleged.
To subStantiate this view, the affi-
davit includes an abstract of the adj
dress of John A. Moffitt, president of
the United HatterS of North America
at the last convention of the organiza-
ton in New York, in which he told
of the fight of the organization against
several hat manufacturers, to show
that boycotting had been effective in
compelling them to unioniZe their
shops. In the address reference was
also made to the resolution also adopt
ed by the American Federation of
Labor, at its Scranton convention,
pledging the federation and it's MEM
bers against buying or using hats
made by a certain firm of Philadelphia.
The affidavit declared: That the
direct result of the acts of the defend
ants was to diminish the sale of the
Loewe firms product by the amount
of $4,000, a loss of 40 per cent of
what it would have been otherwise,
and in January, 1903, the business, in
stead of showing a profit of $4,000,
showed loss of more than $4,000, a
damage of $4,000; that since Jan. l.
1903, the business has been run at a
loss, and many of the firms custo-
mers have ceased altogether to buy of
them; that the natural, probable and
intended result is that before the suit
is done the business will be further
damaged in the loss of customers and
the destruction of the good will of the
business and the tying up and rem
dering useless the capital of the plant
ifs"
The suit is brought in the state court
seeking 100000 damages. and is in
dependent of another suit, in which
the same parties are involved, brought
In the United States courts, in which
$4,000 damages is sought, and also
an injunction restraining the defend
ants from continuing the boycott on
the ground that 1t is a violation of the
Sherman interstate commerce law.
A telegram was received tonight by
Edward Barry, secretary of the woods
men committee, from Premier Ross, of
Oontario The, message reads:
The government will in every way
possible protect the interests of the
workingmen in the various industries,
main and subsidiary, of the Consolidat-
ed Lake Superior company, withhold
Ing subsidies and in other ways, if
necessary, and will insist on the set
Element of all claims for wages prior
to everything else.'
The officers of the Algoma Central
have refused to send a train for the
more than 400 men who are in the lum-
Der camps of the company. The men in
the camps have been made aware of
this decision by their friends in town
and the whole body of men is now
marching into town.
The gravest fears are expressed for
the outcome when this body of men
reaches the 500. The men are said to
be angry that the company, which re-
fuses to pay them wages, should re-
fuse to furnish them transportation
back to civilization.