The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-04
SUIT IS FILED ID
 STOP CLOSED SHOP 0. W. Post Sues Stove Com pany and Labor Leaders ABOUT TO ENTER DEAL MT. Post Alleges That He as n Stock holder Will Suffer Loss If the
 Stove Company Must De
 Closed Shop
ABOUT TO ENTER DEAL

St. Louis September 3.-C. W. Post of Battle Crook. Mich, today filed suit in the United States court for the Eastern district of Missouri against the Ameri- can Federation of Labor and the Buck Stove and Range company of St. Louis to restrain the officers of the latter from carrying out an alleged tentative agree nent with officers of the former to make the St. Louis institution a closed shop
 The case is a suit in equity and in- clldes among the defendants Samuel Gompers, president John Mitchell, vice president Frank Morrison, secretary. and others officers of the federation and some go others prominently identified with union labor in America.
 The action grows out of the meeting held in Cincinnati July ;, at which ar engagements were perfected between Com pers and his associates and the officers of the stove company to have lifted the boycott which had been in force during the life of J. W. yanCleave, who died May 15 of this year.
 The complainant, Post, states in his pe- tition that he is a stockholder of the Buck company and that his interests and those of tlre company will suffer by reason of the proposed agreement. A meeting between the American Federation leaders and the stove company officials had been set for next Tuesday and it was to offset possible delay that the suit was filed.
 It was, claimed that the consummation of the proposed agreement would de- prive the stove company of an oppor- tunity of recovering hundreds of thou sands of dollars because of the union boy cot and that irreparable injury to the concern will result because of the de- structon of the prestige 1t gained through its victory over the labor unions in the District of Columbia courts
 A claim for damages in the sum of S750 900, alleged suffered as the result of the boycott. is set up under the Sherman act, making the case identical in many respects with the famous Danbury hat suit in which the matters recovered $224, 900 as the result of boycott by the labor unions.
 The petition charges that the present directorate of the Buck company is about to enter a deal to thwart any efforts on the part of the company to collect dam ages sustained through the boycott. After reciting the history of the Buck ease from the day of its inception in 1908, when the Metal Polishers' union went on strike down to the present time, It Is charged that though the strike was without cause, as afterwards stated by Chief Justice Wright of the equity court of the District of Colum- | tuted the boycott as a part of con- spiracy to wreck 1rm which had presumed to Insist on the right of all men to work for their families and themselves.
 Following the death of J. W. Van Cleave who had been the backbone of the company's opposltion> to the Fed eration leaders, 1t is alleged that Fred W. Gardiner, a majority stockholder, assumed managerial control of the company and planned to change its policy to it's detriment.
 It Is further alleged that 1t Is pro- posed by the defendant company's present directorate to violate a con- tract with the American Anti-Boycott association, which is prosecuting the case against Gompers and his associ- ates, now pending In the supreme court. This contract was entered into during the life of Van Cleave. The injunction feature of the case will be heard by Judge Smith McPher- son in chambers at Red Oak, Iowa, Monday morning.