The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1914-05-14
CONTEMPT CHARGE p.
AGAINST G0MPERS
AGAIN SET ASIDE

washington, May 12.-The contempt
sentences imposed by the district su-
preme court on Samuel Gompers. John
Mitchell and Frank Morrison, labor
leaders were set aside today by the su-
preme court for the second time as
barred by the statute Of limitations.
Justice Holmes said the case turned
on the point that the contempt pro-
ceedings should have been started
within three years from the date or
the committing of the offences. He said
proceedings for contempt should be
speedily and thus come within the pur-
pose of the statute OF limitations which
require prosecutions within three years.
Justices Pitney and Vandevanter dis
scented.
The contempts charged against the
labor leaders occurred in 1907 and early
In 1908, about the time the District or
Columbia supreme court issued an IN
junction prohibiting h federation Of
ficials from ~boycotting h Bucks Stove
d Range company of st. Louis, then
in a labor war with organized labr. "
The labor leaders were sentenced to
jail, but the supreme court Of the United
States in 1911 set the convictin aside
because the labor leaders had been pro-
ceeded against as IL the proceedings
were a part Of the boycott suit. The
district court the daY after h reyer-
sal, then began separate proceedings
against the leaders for the same Of
Tense. sN
Review of Case.
The contempt charges against Sam
uel Gompers, John Mitchell and Frank
Morrison grew out of the injunction is
sued by the District Of Columbia SUI
preme court to prohibit the federation
~boycotting the Bucks Stove and Range
company. Proceeding as If the con
tempt cases were part of the injunc-
ton suit. the district supreme court
held the labor leaders in contempt and
sentenced Gompers to n year in jail;
Mitchell to nine months and Morrison
to six months. The supreme court Of
the United States on May is, 1911, set
aside those sentences holding that PEN
Ell sentences had been enormously i'm
posed in a civil suit. .ras .a
The day after the sentences were
set aside, the district supreme court be-
gar new proceedings against the labor
leaders A committee was appointed to
report whether there was reasonable
cause for holding the men guilty Of con-
tempt. 1t consisted of j. J. Darlington
Daniel Davenport and James NJ. Beck,
attorneys Of record for the Bucks
Stove2& Range company.
The committee reported that the
three men had been guilty of contempt.
1t charged that Gompers in December.
1907, had hurried out an issue of the
American Federationist, containing the
name I the Bucks Stove & Range com
pany on n We Don't Patronize List"
so as to have ii published before the
injunction o effect, and circulated
the edition after the Injunction became
effective. 1t charged contempt for the
court In various utterances of Gompers
In speeches and editorially in the Fed
e~rationist. Still another charge was
that he printed and circulated a paper
known as can Urgent Appeal for FL
nancial Aid in Defensee Of Free Press
and Free Speech" in which Il was con
tended that he suggested members of
the federation might violate the Iniunc-
ton and defeat its object proyided they
were not within the District OF Column
bia.
M%orrison's Connection.
Frank Morrison was charged with
cooperating with Gompers, as secre-
tary OF the federation, in making these
| publications. Mitchell was likewise
charged with cooperation in the cir
culation of the Federationist and Of the
Urgent Appeal" n with presiding
over a meeting of the United Mine
workers on January 25, 1908, when a
resolution was adopted placing the
BUCKS stoves and ranges on the unfair
LIST, and providing for fines for mem
bers who purchased such a stove or
range.
The report was approved by the dis
trict supreme court and the identical
sentences Of the first proceeding were
imposed.
The District of Columbia court Of ap-
peals remanded the case with direc-
ton that the sentence IN Gompers be
modified to one months Imprisonment
and the Imprisonment OF Mitchell and
Morrison be changed to a fine Of $500
for each man.
The district supreme court commit
tee insisted before the supreme court
that the court Of appeals had no right
to modify the sentences. Alton B.
| Parker, recent presidential candidate
| and jackson H. Ralston, commended the
men had not been guilty OF any o n
tempt.