The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1908-02-08
Hits UNIONS HARD
ANOTHER BOYCOTT DECISION nv
UNITED STATES SUPREME
COURT.
Unions Held Liable Under Sherman
Law for Damages in Boycott Cases
Chief Justice Fuller Maintains the
Sherman Acts Operations Exempt
K No Glass.

Washington, D. c., Feb. 4.-Yester-
day, for the third time within a month,
the supreme court of the United
States promulgated an opinion con-
STRUNG laws adversely to the cOnten-
tons of organized labor. The first Of
the decisions was rendered on Janu-
airy 6, in the case of some railway en-
ployes who sought to secure damages
under what is known as the employ
ers' liability law, making railroads re-
sponsible for injuries resulting from
the negligence of fellow servants,
which law the court held to be uncon-
stitutional. The second important
finding in this line was announced on
January %, when the Erdman arbitra-
ton act, forbidding the discharge Of
employees because they are members
of labor unions, was declared invalid.
The verdict rendered yesterday was
in the case of Loewe versus Lawler,
the latter a member of the Hatters'
Union, and the former a hat manufac-
turer of Danbury, Conn. The case in
volved the applicability of the seventh
section of the Sherman antitrust law
to conspiracies by labor unions to boy
colt articles entering into interstate
trade.
Under the terms of that provision
the complaining party may collect
three times the amount of his loss IL
the charge is sustained. The union
fought the case on the ground that the
law was inapplicable to such organ
izations; but the court, whose opinion
was announced by Chief Justice Full
ler,, failed to accept this view, and in
effect held that the unions would not
be permitted to interfere by boycott
with the free exchange of commerce
between the states. There was no dis
senting opinion.
Holds Restraint of Trade.
After quoting many precedents and
reciting the complaint in thes case,
Chief Justice Fuller continued:
"The averments here are that there
was an existing interstate traffic be-
tween plaintiff and citizens of other
states, and that for the direct purpose
of destroying such interstate traffic
defendants combined not merely to
prevent plaintiffs from manufacturing
articles then and there intended for
transportation beyond the state, but
also to prevent the vendees from re-
selling the hats which they had i'm
ported from Connecticut or from fur
Their negotiating with plaintiffs for the
purchase and transportation Of such
hats from Connecticut to the various
places of destination. So that, al
though some of the means whereby
the interstate traffic was to be de-
stroyed were acts within a state and
some of them were in themselves as
part of their obvious purpose and
effect beyond the scope of federal au-
thority, still, as we have seen, the
acts must be considered as whole,
and the plan is open to condemnation,
Notwithstanding negligible amount
of interstate business might be affect
ed in carrying it out.
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