Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-05-12
Supreme Court Hands Down
Decision in Gompers
Contempt Cases
SENTENCES TO JAIL
DECLARED INVALID
Lower Tribunals Power to
Press Charge Barred BY
the Lapse Of Time

Washington, D. c., May 1.-THE
contempt sentences imposed by the
district supreme court upon Samuel
Gompers, John Mitchell and Frank
Morrison, labor leaders, were set
aside today by the supreme court a
second time as barred by the statute
Of limitations.
The charges grew out of the in.
junction issued by the District of Col
umbia suprenfe court to prohibit the
federation boycotting the Bucks
Stove and Range Co. Proceeding as
II the contempt cases were part of the
Injunction suit, the district supreme
court held the labor leaders in con-
tempt and sentenced Gompers to one
year in Jail; Mitchell to nine months
and Morrison to six months. The SUI
preme court OF the United States on
May Is, 1911, set aside those sentences
holding that penial sentences had
been erronecusly imposed in a civil
suit.
The day after the sentences were set
aside, the district supreme court be-
gan new proceedings against the labor
leaders. A committee was appointed
to report whether there was reasonable
cause for holding the men guilty Of
contempt. IT, consisted of j. j. Dar-
lington, Daniel Davenport and James
M. Beck, attorneys Of record for the
Bucks Stove and Range Co.
The committee reported that the
three men had been guilty OF con-
tempt. 1t charged that Gompers in
December, 1907, had hurried out an
issue OF the American F,ederationist.
containing the name Of the Buck
Stove & Range Co., on the 1--WE Don't
Patronize List" so as to have 1t pub
lished before the injunction took eff
feet, and circulated the edition after
the injunction became effective. It
charged contempt for the court in vari-
GUS utterances of Gompers in speeches
and editorially in the Federationist
Still another charge was that he
printed and circulated a paper known
as IAN Urgent Appeal For Financial
Aid in Defence OF Free Press and Free
Speech" In which it was contended
that he suggested members of the fed
Grafton might violate the injunction
and defeat its object provided they
were not within the District of Col
umbia.
Frank Morrison was charged with
cooperating with Gompers, as secre-
tary Of the federation. in making these
publications. Mitchell was likewise
charged with cooperate in the cir
culation of the Federationist and of
the Urgent Appeal" and with presid-
ing over meeting Of the United Mine
Workers on January 25, 1908, when a
resolution was adopted placing the
Bucks Stove & Range Co., on the
unfair list, and providing for fines for
members who purchased such stove
or range.
The report was approved by the dis
trict supreme court and the identical
sentences of the first proceedings were
imposed.
The District of Columbia court of
appeals remanded the case with direc-
tion that the sentence on Gompers be
modified to one months Imprisonment
and the imprisonment of Mitchell and
Morrison be changed to 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, one time presidential candi-
date, and Jackson H. Ralston, con-
tended the men had not been guilty
Of any contempt.