Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1908-12-31
SENTENCED TO JAIL.
Gompers Mitchell and Morri
son Convicted of Contempt.
THE JUDGE SCORES UNION MEN.
Declares They Have Openly Defed
The Courts.-Gompers Says He
Has Only Been Fighting the Bat
ties of the Working Man-Union
Men in Several Cities Protest

Washington, Special - Twelve
months i'll Jail for Samuel Gompers,
President, nine months for John
Mitchell, one of the vice presidents,
and six months for Frank Morrison,
secretary, all of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor, was the sentence
imposed by Justice Wright, of the
Supreme Court of the District of CO.
Iumbia, tor contempt of Court in
violating an order previously issued
enjoining them from placing on the
unfair or ''wc don't patronize"
list the Bucks Stove and Range Co.,
! of st. Louis, Mo.
ALI three of the defendants were in
court. Notice of an appeal to the
Court of Appeals, of the District of
Columbia, at once was filled, Com
pers being released on $1,000 bond,
Mitchell on $4,000, and Morrison on
$4,000.
With tears coursing down his own
checks, President Gompcrs heard the
order Of the Court which condemned
him TO prison for year. Both Mitch
ell and Morrison seemed stunned by
| appeared to be least concerned.
Asked if lie had anything to say
why sentence should not be pronoun-
ced, President Gompers declared that
he had not consciously violated any
law. There was mitch lie would like
to say, he said, but he could not do
at that time. He. added, however,
thai, this is. y Struggle of the work.
ing people Of our country, and it is
IL struggtsSof the working people for
Night. 1t4is. a struggle of the ages
"a struggle of the men of labor to
4 throw off some OF the burdens which
\ have been heaped upon them; to abol
sh some of the wrongs and to secure
somtsofl the fights too long denied. {"
Mitchell and Morrison contend
Iselves to an endorsement of
What Mn Gomprs had said.
AA sScatching Arraingnmnet.
- The decision of Justice Wright,
which consumed two hours and twen-
| ty minutes in reading was one of the
most scathing arraignments that
ever came from the bench in this
city. He reeited the conditions an
teceding the injunction and referred
to the fact that for twenty-five years
the Bucks plant had been oprated as
ten-hour shop and always had
maintained an "open shop Tht
Court read extracts from numbers of
resolutions of labor organizations
bearing On the Bucks case as tending
to show the methods of influencing
members of unions, "and these
methods - the Court remarked,
| seemed to be known as persua-
sion. +" The customers of he Stove
Company, the Court said, had been
intimidated, brow-beaten and coerced
out of their business relations with
their customers "by direct interfer-
ence with and boycott of their (the
customers) trade relations with their
own customers and the public gener-
ally" Following an exhaustive dis
cussion in restraint Of trade. Justice
Wright said:
''From the foregoing it ought to
seem apparent to thoughtful men
that the defendants to the bill, each
and all of them, have combined to-
gether for the purpose Of
~. Bringing abont the breach of
plaintiffs existing contracts with
others.
"2. Depriving plaintiff of prop
erty (the value Of the good will Of
the business) without due process of
law.
''3. Restraining trade among the
several States.
"a. Restraining commerce among
the, several States.
| The ultimate purpose of the de-
PENDANTS, the Court said, in this con-
neetion was unlawful, their concert
ed project an offence against the
law and, it added, they were guilty
Of crime.
Coming to the question of viola
tion of the Court s injunction Jus,
tice Wright said:
Violation of the Injunction.