The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1918-03-29

ment IN passing sentence follows:
In order that all who are interested
in your cases may know how they
are disposed of, l have dictated and
had transcribed what I shall say to
you.
A copy Of this opinion will be
handed to every newspaper published
in Hamilton with a request to publish
| it.
All of you were indicted by the
grand jury.
All of you were found guilty by
petit juries.
In two of the riot cases, the de-
PENDANTS in one case exercised about
ninety peremptory challenges, and in
the other case between thirty and
forty, so you had the fullest oppor-
tunity to obtain a jury to your own
liking. You We're given fair trials.
This is clearly indicated in the Shuler
and Benninghofen riot case, which re-
quired thirteen days to try, when your
counsel in arguing the motion for a
new trial finds no fault whatever
with any ruling which the court made
but simply complained that the YER
diet was against the weight of the
evidence.
The claim has been made that these
are prosecutions aeainst organized la
Dor. That is absolutely untrue. They
are prosecutions by the State of Ohio
for violations of the laws of Ohio.
SO far as the judge of this court
is concerned he feels friendly to or
ganized labor. 1t is the right and
privilege of labor to organize just as
it is the right and privilege Of en-
ployers or any other class of people
to organize 1t is commendable in
organized labor to do all it can with
in the law to better it's conditions and
to obtain higher wages. This court
refuses to believe that organized la
Dor approves lawlessness and violence.
Acts of violence must cease. We
are not living in Russia where the
mob rules. We are living in coun-
try where order must prevail, where
the dignity of the law must be up
held, where everyone who violates the
law, whoever he may be, must be
brought to the bar of justice, given
a fair trial and if convicted, properly
punished
In passing sentence, every court
must have two objects in view; one
the punishment of the wrong doer;
the other the example of punishment
to others to deter them from commit
ting like offenses.
There are two classes of cases here,
one being for assault and battery or
assault, the other for rioting.
If men become involved in a
quarrel and one in the heat of pas
sion assaults and strikes another, the
court would not consider the offense
as nearly SO grave as when one man
assaults another simply because he
was doing what the law of Ohio gives
him the right to do, namely, to work
wherever he pleases and for whatever
wages he pleases.
The law guarantees to every citizen
the right to labor and safety and Sc
curity in his labor and while going to
and from it. 1t is the duty of court
to see that this right is jealously
guarded and firmly upheld.
Louis Schalk, Walter Price and
Thomas Lockovitz have been found
guilty of assault and battery or as
sault upon workmen against whom
they had no ill-will but whose only
offence was that they were doing that
which the Constitution of Ohio guar
antees them the right to do-earning
their living by their daily toll.
AS punishment for such offense,
everyone of said offenders should
serve three months in the Cincinnati
workhouse.
As to the convictions of riot, some
took a more active part than others,
some appeared to blindly follow their
leaders.
Some are women. The Court has
made a personal examination of the
Butler county jail and the Cincinnati
workhouse and dislikes to commit
these women to either place unless
forced to do so by their conduct.
The Court has endeavored to differ
entiate between those convicted of riot
and has tried to make its sentence
just in each case, Furnishing more