Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/274/328.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 19:09:59+00:00

Document:
[274 U.S. 328, 329] Messrs. R. W. Henderson, of Bakersfield, Cal., and Walter H. Pollak, of New York City, for plaintiff in error.
Plaintiff in error here contends that, as applied in the district court, these provisions are repugnant to the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The only attack upon the validity of the law was by the demurrer and motion in arrest. In each [274 U.S. 328, 331] of these, he asserted that the statute 'is in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and is void for uncertainty.' But that point is determined adversely to his contentions in Whitney v. People of the State of California, 274 U.S. 357 , 47 S. Ct. 641, decided this day.
'I heard ... a member of the I. W. W. say in [274 U.S. 328, 334] a speech on May 10, 1923: 'When you go back to work, if we do have to go to work, we will put on the wooden shoe.' Then he said: 'In case you are loading telephone poles on a ship down there, sometime the boss is not looking you can slip a couple of poles crossways and then cover up, and then when that ship goes to sea naturally she will start rolling and the cargo will shift, and then she will come in listed like the one you see out in the harbor, then she has got to tie up to the dock, and she will have to unload the telephone poles and put them in again and put them straight, and then we will get paid for the loading originally, and get paid for unloading it and get pay for loading it again, and that will hit the bosses hard in the pocketbook."
While one of the purposes of such improper loading of ships may be to create more work for the men, and so to inflict loss on employers, it is also plainly calculated to endanger the vessels, their cargoes, and the lives of those aboard. By the instruction complained of the consideration of the jury was limited to 'things of that kind.' The advocating of the malicious commission of such acts is to teach and abet sabotaghe-physical damage and injury to physical property; it also is to teach and abet crime and unlawful methods of terrorism. It was not necessary for the prosecution to show that the elements of criminal syndicalism were advocated or taught with the precision of statement required in indictments for criminal acts involved. Cf. Wong Tai v. United States, 273 U.S. 77 , 47 S. Ct. 300, decided January 3, 1927. The purpose and probable effect of the printed matter circulated and of the things said in furtherance of the declared purposes of the organization are to be considered having regard to the capacity and circumstances of the persons sought to be influenced. When there is taken into account the evidence referred to and the parts of the charge preceding and following the part of the charge here assailed-and especially the giving and reiteration of the statutory language defining sabotage-it is quite apparent that the instruction was not erroneous.
Both sides have dealt with the case here as if the question were properly raised, and we have considered its merits. McNitt v. Turner, 16 Wall. 352, 362; Baltimore & Potomac Railroad v. Mackey, 157 U.S. 72, 86 , 15 S. Ct. 491; Norfolk- [274 U.S. 328, 336] & W. R. Co. v. Earnest, 229 U.S. 114 , 33 S. Ct. 654, Ann. Cas. 1914C, 172; Cf. West v. Rutledge Timber Co., 244 U.S. 90, 99 , 100 S., 37 S. Ct. 587. But, after examining the record, we think plaintiff in error failed to make any objection or effectively to take exception to the charge complained of. The exception there indicated did not call the court's attention to the instruction now attacked. It was general in form, and applied to the series of statements that followed it, covering about two pages of the record. Plaintiff in error does not contend that all of them are erroneous, and obviously they are not. The rule is well established that, where a series of instructions are excepted to in mass, the exception will be overruled, if any one of them is correct. Johnson v. Jones, 1 Black, 209, 220; Beaver v. Taylor, 93 U.S. 46 , 54; McDermott v. Severe, 202 U.S. 600, 610 , 26 S. Ct. 709. Exceptions to a charge must be specifically made, in order to give the court opportunity then and there to correct errors and omissions, if any. Pennsylvania R. Co. v. Minds, 250 U.S. 368, 375 , 39 S. Ct. 531, and cases cited; Allis v. United States, 155 U.S. 117, 122 , 15 S. Ct. 36. Even if some of the instructions were erroneous, the exceptions taken were not such as to require a new trial.
This writ of error was allowed under section 238 of the Judicial Code, on constitutional grounds, prior to the amendment of February 13, 1925. All alleged errors at the trial which were properly excepted to are therefore before us. Chaloner v. Sherman, 242 U.S. 455, 457 , 37 S. Ct. 136. There was, at least, one error committed which, in my opinion, justifies reversal and which does not involve a constitutional question. For that reason, according to the practice approved by the court, I refrain from discussing the constitutional questions presented. See Liverpool, N. Y. & Phila. Steamship Co. v. Emigration Comm'rs, 113 U.S. 33, 39 , 5 S. Ct. 352; Chicago & G. T. R. Co. v. Wellman, 143 U.S. 339, 345 , 12 S. Ct. 400; Howat v. Kansas, 258 U.S. 181, 184 , 42 S. Ct. 277.
The exception to the charge is insisted on, although the objection to the admission of the evidence is not urged here. The charge was clearly erroneous. It plainly directed the jury that 'slowing down on the job' and 'scamped work' constituted sabotage within the meaning [274 U.S. 328, 340] of the statute. Since the jury must have taken it to be an exposition or interpretation of the words of the statute, the error was not cured by definition, elsewhere in the charge, of sabotage in the terms of the statute. The court ruled throughout the course of the trial, that evidence to show a program of scamped work was admissible. Much of the government's evidence consisted of documents showing such a program on the part of the I. W. W. The charge inevitably led the jury to think that all such evidence showed the guilty character of the organization.
It is said that the charge, if erroneous, was not prejudicial, because the illegal character of the organization was established by other evidence than that which formed the basis of the charge, and because even the latter evidence showed the advocacy of acts which amounted to a malicious destruction of property, and so might properly support a conviction even under proper construction of the statute. Even in civil cases erroneous rulings, especially those embodied in instructions, are presumptively prejudicial. Fillippon v. Albion Slate Co., 250 U.S. 76, 82 , 39 S. Ct. 435; United States v. River Rouge Co., 269 U.S. 411, 421 , 46 S. Ct. 144. The illegal character of the organization was not conceded. There was evidence from which the illegal character might have been deduced. But the evidence related, in the main, to the acts of individuals. The effort of the defense was to disavow those acts.
It is also said that the exception to the charge was not properly taken. The defendant excepted specifically to that portion of the charge which dealt with sabotage. The precise ground of the exception was not set forth. But the continued objections to the admission of evidence upon the ground here urged, and the court's adverse rulings thereon, could have left no doubt in the mind of the court as to what was meant by the exception here in question. Moreover, the case comes to this [274 U.S. 328, 341] court from a lower federal court. We have, therefore, the power to correct errors committed below although objection was not taken there. That power has been repeatedly exercised in criminal cases. See Wiborg v. United States, 163 U.S. 632 , 658-660, 16 S. Ct. 1127, 1197; Clyatt v. United States, 197 U.S. 207, 221 , 222 S., 25 S. Ct. 429. This case, I think, warrants its exercise.

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