The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-09-03
As a Stakeholder i'm the Buck
Stove and Range Co.
He Will Try to Prevent Settle
ment of the Strike.
FEDERATION OF LABOR
And Its Head officers AreAmOng
the Defendants.
He Also Asks Damages of $3.50,
900 for the Boycott.

st. Louis, Mo-. Sept. &C. w. Post
of Battle Creek, Mich, today filed
suit in the United States circuit court
for the eastern district of Missouri
against the American Federation of
Labor and the Bucks Stove and
Range company of st. Louis to re-
strain the officers of the latter from
carrying out an alleged tentative
agreement with officers of the former
to make the st. Louis institution a
closed shop.
The case is a suit in equity, and in
cludes among the defendants Samuel
Gompers, president; John Mitchell,
vice president; Frank Morrison, sec
retary, and other officers of the fed
Grafton and some SO others prominent
ly identified with union labor in
America
The injunction feature of the suit
will be heard by Judge Smith Nc
Pherson in chambers at Red Oak, Ia,
Monday.
The action grows out of the meet
ing held in Cincinnati July 10, at
which arrangements were perfected
between Gompers 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.
Van Cleave, who died May Is, of this
year.
The complainant, Post, states in his
petition that he is a stockholder OF
| the Bucks Stove company and his in
| terests and those of the company will
suffer by reason of the proposed agree
ment.
A meeting between the American
Federation of Labor leaders and the
stove company officers has been set for
next Tuesday and it was to head OFF
possible action that the suit was filed
| 1t is claimed that the consummation OF
the proposed agreement would deprive
| the stove company of any opportunity
| of recovering hundreds of thousands
| of dollars lost because of the union
boycott and that irreparable injury to
| the concern will result because of the
destruction of the prestige it gained
through its victory over the labor
courts.
| Claim for Damages.
| A claim for damages in the sum OF
| $750,000, alleged to have been suf-
| fered as the result of the boycott is
set up under the Sherman act, max
| ing the case similar to the famous
| Danbury hat suit, in which the hatters
recovered $224.00O as the result of q
| boycott by the labor unions.
| The petitioner charges that the pres
ent directorate of the Bucks company
| is about to enter a deal to thwari
any effort on the part of the company
| to collect damages sustained through
| the boycott. After reciting the history
| of the Bucks case from the date of its
| inception in 1906. when the Metal
| Polishers' union went on strike. dowr
| 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 Dis
| trict of Columbia, the Federation OF
Labor instituted the boycott as part
| Of conspiracy to wreck a firm which
| had presumed to insist upon the right
| of all men to work for their families
and themselves.
| Following the death of ]. w. Var
| C1eave, who had been the backbone
| of the company's opposition to the
| Federation leaders, it is alleged Fred
| w. Gardner, majority stockholder
1 assumed managerial control of the
| company and planned to change its
| policy to its detriment.