Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1911-05-15
LABOR LEADERS
WIN APPEAL
Gompers, Mitchell and Nor
rison Will Not Go to Jail
For Contempt.
CIVIL NOT CRIMINAL MATTER
Supreme Court Holds That Cor
porations Must Produce
Books.

DOCKS.
I (By Special Leased Wire to New Mexican)
Washington, d. c., May 15.-The
supreme court of the United States
today approved the recent sentence
of contempt imposed in the New York
courts on Christopher c. Wilson,
president of the United Wireless Tel
egraph company, because of refusal
to permit the examination of the COM
pany's books
Must Produce Books.
Washington, d. c., May 15.-By
this decision, the federal government
won far-reaching legal controversy,
in that officials of corporations can
not refuse to give up possession of
corporation books for examination by
grand juries, lest they themselves be
incriminated thereby
| The court also approved the con.
tempt sentence imposed on William
/ Dreier of New York, secretary of the
Lchtenstein Millinery Company, who
had also refused to produce books un-
der circumstance similar to those in
the Wilson case.
Labor Leaders Win Partial Victory.
/ Washington, D. G., May 15.-Setting
aside the sentences of Imprisonment
opposed by the supreme court of the
District of Columbia, for alleged dis
obedience to a boycott, injunction, the
supreme court of the United States
today held that Samuel Gompers,
John Mitchell and Frank Morrison,
president, vice president and secre-
tary, respectively, of the American
Federation Of Labor, had been erron.
eously sentenced to Jail on a charge
OF contempt of local court.
| The court unanimously held tina!
that only sentences that could be i'm
posed on the labor leaders were fines
ruling that the court of appeals and
supreme court of the District of Col
umbia erred in treating the contemp
proceedings as Criminal case anG
not civil one. The effect of holding
the proceedings civil one was tt
make Jail sentences impossible. Tt
correct the case it was sent back tt
the local courts with the direction
that it be dismissed.
At the same time, the court ex
pressly made it possible for civil pro
ceedings to be instituted against thu
labor men by the Bucks Stove ant
Range company, at whose instance
the original contempt case wa!
brought. Inasmuch as all the differ
ences between the labor men and thu
Bucks Stove and Range company
have been adjudicated, including tht
boycott out of which the contemp
proceedings arose, todays decision IL
: probably the last to be heard of the
famous action
Story Of the Case.
Washington, May 15.-The charg,
of contempt against President Com
pers, Vice-President Mitchell ant
= Secretary Morrison arose out of a bit
ter labor war between organized la
Dor and the Bucks Stove and Rang
i Company, OF st. Louis, Mo.
J. The St. Louis concern had come in
a to the Supreme Court of the Distric
S of Columbia to prevent, by iniunct
}. ion, the American Federation of La
J. Dor and it's officials from boycottin
l. its own products or the business o
II those who dealt with it. The ques|
l. ion involved and the parties concern
q ed attracted widespread attention
/ The company claimed that the Fedt
> ration was trying to unionize the con
;pany's shop. The labor leaders vi
ged that the company was unfair t
labor. The head of the company wa
J. w. VanCleave, President of. tn
National Manufacturers Association
= which has often come into. confic
. with the Federation. He was char,
ed with having been opposed to O.
ganized labor, and with having sough
to put his nickelplate workers on
n ten-hour instead of a nine-hour basil
Justice Gould, Of the District 81
preme Court, issued the .injunctio
prayed for by the company. An al
peal was taken to the Court of Al
. pea1s of the District of Columbia. bu
I before that court could pass upon tn
validity of the Injunction, the Buck
Stove and Range Company agai
. came into the District Supreme Cour
this time with charges of conteml
against President Gompers, Vic
President Mitchell and Secretary Mo
rison. These men were accused ,
y having violated the Injunction deere
" Justice Wright found them guilt
"a and sentenced President Gompers ,
N one year in jail; vice-President Mi
~ chell to nine months; and Secretal
Morrison to six months. An appe
was taken from this sentence, fir
: to the Court of Appeals, which 9
I, firmed it, and finally to the Supren
~ Court Of the United States, where
70 is now pending.
10. The alleged violations consisted
he utterances and acts in futherance
the boycott. 1t was charged tn
re Mr.. Gompers had rushed out the ia
uary number Of the American Fede1
N. ZIONIST, the official organ Of the Am,
4 =
ch lean Federation Of Labor, SO as
ch evade the decree, which went into
ar m ~
Continued a Page Four.