The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-10
UNION y ABOR FILES ANSWER Feders n Not in Goa ts lpt of Court. TESTIMONY TO BE TAKEN Gompers, Mitchell and Morrison
 Ask for Jury. Alleged Boycott of Buck Stove and Range Company By orxnniza-
 ton Is Again in the
 I.imeIixht.

Wasnlngton, sept. s.-Tne regal pro- ceedings against President Samuel Gompers. Secretary Frank Morrison and John Mitchell. of the American Federation of Labor in which they were charged with contempt of the su- preme Court of the District of coium- bia on account of acts and utterances apropos of the judgment of that court directing them to cease publishing the name of the Bucks Stove and Range Company in their We don't patron l ize" list were virtually postponed for 1 two weeks after brief hearing to- day. Justice Gould. of the Supreme Court. presided.
 The postponement was taken at the instance of counsel for the stove com pany and in opposition to the express ed wishes of Mir. Gompers and his as- sociates who complained of the delay as expensive and sunencessary. It was stated on behalf of the com pany, however. that 1t would be neces- sues made by the petition and the an- swers. and Justice Gould. saying that he saw no necessity for great haste and urging tiie desirability of affords ing both sides fs1ilS opportunity to be heard, granted the request He aps gave each side thirty days and an. nounced his own willingness to sit in the case after the facts shall have been ascertained.
 ssJudge Alton B. Parker took an acc i've part in presenting the defense of Messrs. Gompers, Morrison and Mitch . ell. He took occasion to indicate that he had not sanctioned the application made in behalf of his clients for a jury trial and in behalf of his fellow counsel as we'll as for himself with AA,. To A earnest plea against the postpone ment of the case.
 The taking of testimony will be be- gun next Friday.
 When the case was brought up in the District Supreme Court today II was at first uncertain whether the case vsoaid proceed or be postponed to t1B regVNar term of the court in october.
 Widespread Interest has been taken in the case in view of the labor issues involved. Former Presidential candi- date Alton B. Parker. of New Iork. who headed the Democratic National ticket in 1904. is chief counsel Tor the Federation and notable array or counsel was in court
 J. W. Van Cleave. the president or the petItioning company, is also presl. dent of the National Manufacturers Association. The injunction proceed ings had thetr inception last Novem- Der when Mir. Van Cleave asked the court, Justice Gould presiding, to pro- bihit the Federation from advising or- -ranized labor that the company was unfair to it's employees and from print ing that advice in The Federationlst. the official organ of the Federation.
 The injunction was issued by the court and made permanent The iapol oficiaIs, however. appealed to the public. setting forth why they did not
 ha 0f the in1nnCt- ion. Mr. Gompers has published sever al official pronunciamentos since thsn. going into details in the matter.
 Judge Parker has bceu here since Monday night In conference with the other counsel for the labor interests and has made a close study or iaDoS unions and other details incident to the pr oceedings.
 Judge Ashley M Gould, who is pre- siding over all branches of the District Supreme Court during the vacation season. and who presided in court when the case was brought up, had ln- timated from the bench that the mat- fer should not be heard during vaca tien, but should go over until the reg, uIar term in october.
 Wants Jury Trial.
 In the answers to the petition or the Buck Range and Stove case. GomperA Mitchell and. Frank Morrison, Of the American Federation of Labor punish ed for contempt on the charge or Vie- Iating the order of Justice Gould ep- ioining them from continuing the boy, cott against the stove company bY nublishing the name of that company in the i've don't patronize list, which was filed today in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, the three defendants named asked that the issu" he tried before a jury and not by Jus tice Gould alone.
 Most of the specifications of the peti' tion relate to publications in The American Federationist, the official or gan of the Federation. Of which MT Gompers is editor, and to pubic ad- dresses made by him and his response is of much greater length man lhosT of Messrs. Mitchell and Morrison, both of whom profess ignorance as to the utterancas quoted.
 For the most part, MT. Gompers ad- rnits the correctness Of the quotations from his speeches, interviews and edt- torials, but he declares that none of them were intended to be In contempt of any decree ot the court.
 The principal charge made in the nattticn referred to criticisms of the injunction which were made by Mr Gompers in an editorial published in The Federationist for February 1908. in which he characterized the injunGt- ion invasion or lA6 bpeIty ON l1AN nress and of the right of free speech, and further said 1t would he imposei. bIe to comply with all it's terms. Re- nIvine to this charge, MT. Gompers. MT. Mitchell and MT. Morrison united in saying:
 Answering the seventeenth para graph of the petition this respondent says that the editorial therein referred to is only to be understood properly bv heinz read in it's entirety. and he accordingly. for the full contents there of refers to the files of this court. He denies that said editorial constituted in any respect the contempt of court or that 1t was in any degree disre- spectful of the action of the court. On the contrary. he says, 1t contained only such fair and temperate criticism as he had a right to indulge in as citizen. of the conduct of one of the of- Acers of the Government and that the order and decree herein passed were neyer properly intended to take away from him his legal rights as an Amer ican citizen, but only intended to pre- vent the doing of acts styled unlaw- ful had pursuant to a supposed unlaw-