Evening star., 1940-05-02
Directed Verdict
Asked for Officers
Of Teamster Union
A. F. of l. Counsel
Charges Government
Contrudicts Self

Asking for a directed verdict to
free the teamsters union defendants
who are on trial in District Court
charged with conSpiring to tie up
building operations here last fall,
Joseph A. Padway, counsel for the
American Federation of Labor, to-
day told Justice F. Dickinson Let's
the Government in this instance is
attempting to overthrow principle
that it is defending in another ac-
ton against labor union.
Mr.. PadWay began his argument
after the Government had rested
and had announced through James
Hayes, special assistant to the At
torney General, that the charge
against one of the five men indicted
here was being dropped. Mr.. Hayes
said no evidence had been brought
in to involve in the case Thomas
O'Brien, a representative of the In
ternational Teamsters' Union. That
left on trial Charles j. Bell, presi-
dent; Stuart M. Keyser, recording
secretary; Linwood A. Trainham,
secretary treasurer, and Aubrey w.
Stream, business representative, all
OF local 639 of the teamsters.
st. Louis Case Cited.
The men are accused under the
Sherman Antitrust Act, which
prohibits restraint of commerce, with
attempting to prevent deliveries of
concrete to Government buildings
because the concrete mixing trucks
were being driven by members of
the Operating Engineers, another
affiliate of the A. F. of l.. The team
sters declared this work had been
awarded to them by a board of
award of the federation, but the
Government prosecution has not
taken cognizance of that fact, the
defense alleges.
On the contrary, Mr.. Padway told
the court, in st. Louis. where the
Government is prosecuting members
of the Carpenters Union as result
OF row with the Machinists' Union,
the Government declared that the
action of the carpenters in striking
and attempting to boycott the An
heuser- Busch plant was ''doubly un-
lawful" because a board of award
had given the machinists the work
the carpenters were seeking to get.
In urging directed verdict, Mr..
Padway repeated a previous argu-
ment that labor is exempt from the
Sherman Act by terms of the Clay
ton Act and by the Norris-La
Guardia Act, which he said we're
passed to counteract loopholes that
showed up in the Sherman Act as
the result of a series of Supreme
Court decisions.
The A. F. of L. counsel also de-
clared that the indictment was
faulty.
Petition for Acceptance Cited.
In cross-examining a Government
witness late yesterday, the defense
pointed to evidence that approxi-
mately ITO members of the Operating
Engineers Union had petitioned the
Washington Building Trades Council
last July to be taken into the
teamsters' organization and to be
represented by that union in nego-
tiations for a new contract covering
working conditions with operators of
concrete-mixer trucks.
The Governments case is based
on the effects the squabble between
the teamSters and the engineers over
the driving of these trucks had on
the city's vast building industry.
The dispute reached head last
September.
The figure cited in the petition
represented a large majority of the
engineers driving the concrete-mixer
vehicles. The proposed contract to
be negotiated by the teamsters in
cluded more favorable wage-hour
provisions than the contract already
in effect between the engineers and
the truck operators, and was pur-
ported to have been drafted by q
committee of the drivers signing the
petition,