East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1912-06-24
LABOR LEADERS
ARE SENTENCED
Pres. Gompers and SeC'y. Morrison
of A. F. Of L. Get Year, Six
Months Respectively.
TAKE APPEAL; RELEASED
John Mitchell Also Convicted But FIX
ing OF Punishment Is Deferred
Court Says Union Men Guilty of
Acts of SeditiOn.

Washington, June 24.-Samuel
Gompers, president of the American
Federation OF Labor, was today sem
fenced to serve a term of one year in
jail for contempt of court, by Justice
Wright of the District of Columbia
supreme court. Frank A. Morrison,
secretary of the federation, was sem
fenced to term of six months for
the same offense. Both appealed their
cases and were released on $4,000
bail each, pending action of the high
er court. The case will go to the
United States supreme court.
The cases are the outgrowth of al
legged actions of contempt toward the
court by Gompers and Morrison, who
had been enjoined by the court from
allowing the Buck Stove and Range
company's business being listed in
the labor bulletins as unfair employ
ers and undeserving of patronage by
union people.
Mitchell Sentence Deferred.
John Mitchell, who was also found
guilty of contempt in the proceedings,
growing out of the publication in the
American Federationist of the name
of the Buck Stove and Range COM
pany of st. Louis, was in court. His
sentence was deferred.
This was the second time Justice
Wright had imposed identical senten-
ces on Gompers for the same offense.
The first time the sentences were set
aside by the supreme court.
"Sedition," says Court.
Because these respondents have
shown themselves ready to repeat the
seditions of the past, penalties in
these cases ought to be in proportion
to the gravity of the offense," declar-
ed Justice Wright in his decision.
Three of Justice Wright's colleagues
sat on the bench with him when he
read the decision, which was lengthy.
Although Justice Wright skipped
many pages, his reading consumed
nearly two hours.
AS the decision of the court was
read, Gompers and Morrison were or
dered to stand and face the court.
They did so, both pale. Then Wright
sentenced them.
Politics I'm Decision.
Gompers issued a statement. criti-
cising Justice Wright's decision and
declaring 1t to be unjust He said he
had been informed that Wright's de-
cision was completed more than a
month ago but had been withheld till
after the republican national conven-
tion. at Chicago.
Gompers said in part:
"The facts and evidence in the ease
have been suppressed. perverted and
the purposes of myself and colleagues
have been entirely misrepersented.
There is not in evidence, nor can
there befound therein or elsewhere,
single act on which to base the
statement of Justice Wright that we
violated any law. state, national or
District of Columbia. Justice Wright
physically lives in our time but his
| decision and sentence disclose a men,
tai conception of more than two cen
turies ago. when the workingman was
either a slave or a serf. Information
! just came to me that the decision
which Wright rendered this morning
was completed more than a month
ago but was withheld till after the
close of the Chicago republican ma
tional convention. If so, the inference
is obvious"