Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/208/274/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 22:40:21+00:00

Document:
After the Circuit Court of Appeals has certified questions to this court and this court has issued its writ of certiorari requiring the whole record to be sent up, it devolves upon this court under § 6 of the Judiciary Act of 1891, to decide the whole matter in controversy in the same manner as if it had been brought here for review by writ of error or appeal.
The Anti-Trust Act of July 2, 1890, 26 Stat. 209, has a broader application that the prohibition of restraints of trade unlawful at common law.
It prohibits any combination which essentially obstructs the free flow of commerce between the States, or restricts, in that regard, the liberty of a trader to engage in business, and this includes restraints of trade aimed at compelling third parties and strangers involuntarily not to engage in the course of interstate trade except on conditions that the combination imposes.
A combination may be in restraint of interstate trade and within the meaning of the Anti-Trust Act although the persons exercising the restraint may not themselves be engaged in interstate trade, and some of the means employed may be acts within a State and individually beyond the scope of Federal authority, and operate to destroy intrastate trade as interstate trade, but the acts must be considered as a whole, and if the purposes are to prevent interstate transportation, the plan is open to condemnation under the Anti-Trust Act of July 2, 1890. Swift v. United States, 196 U. S. 375.
The Anti-Trust Act of July 2, 1890, makes no distinction between classes. Organizations of farmers and laborers were not exempted from its operation, notwithstanding the efforts which the records of Congress show were made in that direction.
A combination of labor organizations and the members thereof, to compel a manufacturer whose goods are almost entirely sold in other States to unionize his shops and, on his refusal so to do to, boycott his goods and prevent their sale in States other than his own until such time as the resulting damage forces him to comply with their demands is, under the conditions of this case, a combination in restraint of interstate trade or commerce within the meaning of the Anti-Trust Act of July 2, 1890, and the manufacturer may maintain an action for threefold damages under 7 of that act.
This was an action brought in the Circuit Court for the District of Connecticut under § 7 of the Anti-Trust Act of July 2, 1890, c. 647, 26 Stat. 209, claiming threefold damages for injuries inflicted on plaintiffs by a combination or conspiracy declared to be unlawful by the act.
Defendants filed a demurrer to the complaint, assigning general and special grounds. The demurrer was sustained as to the first six paragraphs, which rested on the ground that the combination stated was not within the Sherman Act, and this rendered it unnecessary to pass upon any other questions in the case, and, upon plaintiffs declining to amend their complaint, the court dismissed it with costs. 148 Fed.Rep. 924, and see 142 Fed.Rep. 216; 130 Fed.Rep. 633.
The case was then carried by writ of error to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and that court, desiring the instruction of this court upon a question arising on the writ of error, certified that question to this court. The certificate consisted of a brief statement of facts, and put the question thus: "Upon this state of facts, can plaintiffs maintain an action against defendants under section 7 of the Anti-Trust Act of July 2, 1890?"
After the case on certificate had been docketed here, plaintiffs in error applied, and defendants in error joined in the application, to this court to require the whole record and cause to be sent up for its consideration. The application was granted, and the whole record and cause being thus brought before this court, it devolved upon the court, under § 6 of the Judiciary Act of 1891, to "decide the whole matter in controversy in the same manner as if it had been brought there for review by writ of error or appeal."
The question is whether, upon the facts therein averred and admitted by the demurrer, this action can be maintained under the Anti-Trust Act.
contract or engage in any such combination or conspiracy, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court. "
of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court. "
which the defendant resides or is found, without respect to the amount in controversy, and shall recover three fold the damages by him sustained, and the costs of suit; including a reasonable attorney's fee. "
In our opinion, the combination described in the declaration is a combination "in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States," in the sense in which those words are used in the act, and the action can be maintained accordingly.
And that conclusion rests on many judgments of this court, to the effect that the act prohibits any combination whatever to secure action which essentially obstructs the free flow of commerce between the States, or restricts, in that regard, the liberty of a trader to engage in business.
is not alleged as contemplated, and that defendants are not themselves engaged in interstate trade.
We think none of these objections is tenable, and that they are disposed of by previous decisions of this court.
"assuming that agreements of this nature are not void at common law, and that the various cases cited by the learned courts below show it, the answer to the statement of their validity is to be found in the terms of the statute under consideration;"
"the act declares illegal every contract, combination or conspiracy, in whatever form, of whatever nature, and whoever may be the parties to it, which directly or necessarily operates in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States."
We do not pause to comment on cases, such as United States v. Knight, 156 U. S. 1; Hopkins v. United States, 171 U. S. 578, and Anderson v. United States, 171 U. S. 60; in which the undisputed facts showed that the purpose of the agreement was not to obstruct or restrain interstate commerce. The object and intention of the combination determined its legality.
In Swift v. United States, 196 U. S. 375, a bill was brought against a number of corporations, firms and individuals of different States alleging that they were engaged in interstate commerce in the purchase, sale, transportation and delivery, and subsequent resale at the point of delivery of meats, and that they combined to refrain from bidding against each other in the purchase of cattle; to maintain a uniform price at which the meat should be sold, and to maintain uniform charges in delivering meats thus sold through the channels of interstate trade to the various dealers and consumers in other States.
And that, thus, they artificially restrained commerce in fresh meats from the purchase and shipment of livestock from the plains to the final distribution of the meats to the consumers in the markets of the country.
"Commerce among the States is not a technical legal conception, but a practical one, drawn from the course of business. When cattle are sent for sale from a place in one State, with the expectation that they will end their transit, after purchase, in another, and when, in effect, they do so with only the interruption necessary to find a purchaser at the stockyards, and when this is a typical, constantly recurring course, the current thus existing is a current of commerce among the States, and the purchase of the cattle is a part and incident of such commerce."
"The general objection is urged that the bill does not set forth sufficient, definite or specific facts. This objection is serious, but it seems to us inherent in the nature of the case. The scheme alleged is so vast that it presents a new problem in pleading. If, as we must assume, the scheme is entertained, it is, of course, contrary to the very words of the statute. Its size makes the violation of the law more conspicuous, and yet the same thing makes it impossible to fasten the principal fact to a certain time and place. The elements, too, are so numerous and shifting, even the constituent parts alleged are and, from their nature must be, so extensive in time and space that something of the same impossibility applies to them."
suggested that the several acts charged are lawful, and that intent can make no difference. But they are bound together as parts of a single plan. The plan may make the parts unlawful."
"The statute is directed against a series of acts, and acts of several, the acts of combining, with intent to do other acts, 'The very plot is an act in itself.' Mulcahy v. The Queen, L.R. 3 H.L. 306, 317. But an act which in itself is merely a voluntary muscular contraction derives all its character from the consequences which will follow it under the circumstances in which it was done. When the acts consist of making a combination calculated to cause temporal damage, the power to punish such acts, when done maliciously, cannot be denied because they are to be followed and worked out by conduct which might have been lawful if not preceded by the acts. No conduct has such an absolute privilege as to justify all possible schemes of which it may be a part. The most innocent and constitutionally protected of acts or omissions may be made a step in a criminal plot, and, if it is a step in a plot, neither its innocence nor the Constitution is sufficient to prevent the punishment of the plot by law."
"And when Congress has enacted a statute such as the one in question, any agreement or combination which directly operates not alone upon the manufacture, but upon the sale, transportation and delivery of an article of interstate commerce by preventing or restricting its sale, etc., thereby regulates interstate commerce."
"restrained trade, for it narrowed the market for the sale of tiles in California from the manufacturers and dealers therein in other States, so that they could only be sold to the members of the association, and it enhanced prices to the nonmember."
further negotiating with plaintiffs for the purchase and intertransportation of such hats from Connecticut to the various places of destination. So that, although some of the means whereby the interstate traffic was to be destroyed were acts within a State, and some of them were, in themselves, as a part of their obvious purpose and effect, beyond the scope of Federal authority, still, as we have seen, the acts must be considered as a whole, and the plan is open to condemnation notwithstanding a negligible amount of intrastate business might be affected in carrying it out. If the purposes of the combination were, as alleged, to prevent any interstate transportation at all, the fact that the means operated at one end before physical transportation commenced, and at the other end after the physical transportation ended, was immaterial.
Nor can the act in question be held inapplicable because defendants were not themselves engaged in interstate commerce. The act made no distinction between classes. It provided that "every" contract, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade was illegal. The records of Congress show that several efforts were made to exempt, by legislation, organizations of farmers and laborers from the operation of the act, and that all these efforts failed, so that the act remained as we have it before us.
"a gigantic and widespread combination of the members of a multitude of separate organizations for the purpose of restraining the commerce among the several States and with foreign countries,"
it expressed it in these words:"
"Every contract or combination in the form of trust, or otherwise in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to be illegal."
"The subject had so broadened in the minds of the legislators that the source of the evil was not regarded as material, and the evil in its entirety is dealt with. They made the interdiction include combinations of labor, as well as of capital; in fact, all combinations in restraint of commerce, without reference to the character of the persons who entered into them. It is true this statute has not been much expounded by judges, but, as it seems to me, its meaning, as far as relates to the sort of combinations to which it is to apply, is manifest, and that it includes combinations which are composed of laborers acting in the interest of laborers."
"It is the successful effort of the combination of the defendants to intimidate and overawe others who were at work in conducting or carrying on the commerce of the country in which the court finds their error and their violation of the statute. One of the intended results of their combined action was the forced stagnation of all the commerce which flowed through New Orleans. This intent and combined action are nonetheless unlawful because they included in their scope the paralysis of all other business within the city as well."
The case was affirmed on appeal by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. 57 Fed.Rep. 85.
"to secure unto themselves the entire control of the interstate, industrial and commercial business in which the population of the city of Chicago and of other communities along the lines of road of said railways are engaged with each other, and to restrain any and all other persons from any independent control or management of such interstate, industrial or commercial enterprises, save according to the will and with the consent of the defendants."
"We enter into no examination of the act of July 2, 1890, c. 647, 26 Stat. 209, upon which the Circuit Court relied mainly to sustain its jurisdiction. It must not be understood from this that we dissent from the conclusions of that court in reference to the scope of the act, but simply that we prefer to rest our judgment on the broader ground which has been discussed in this opinion, believing it of importance that the principles underlying it should be fully stated and affirmed."
the competency of a State to legislate in such a manner as to obstruct interstate commerce. If a State, with its recognized powers of sovereignty, is impotent to obstruct interstate commerce, can it be that any mere voluntary association of individuals within the limits of that State has a power which the State itself does not possess?"
The question answers itself, and, in the light of the authorities, the only inquiry is as to the sufficiency of the averments of fact. We have given the declaration in full in the margin, and it appears therefrom that it is charged that defendants formed a combination to directly restrain plaintiffs' trade; that the trade to be restrained was interstate; that certain means to attain such restraint were contrived to be used and employed to that end; that those means were so used and employed by defendants, and that thereby they injured plaintiffs' property and business.
At the risk of tediousness, we repeat that the complaint averred that plaintiffs were manufacturers of hats in Danbury, Connecticut, having a factory there, and were then and there engaged in an interstate trade in some twenty States other than the State of Connecticut; that they were practically dependent upon such interstate trade to consume the product of their factory, only a small percentage of their entire output being consumed in the State of Connecticut; that, at the time the alleged combination was formed, they were in the process of manufacturing a large number of hats for the purpose of fulfilling engagements then actually made with consignees and wholesale dealers in States other than Connecticut, and that, if prevented from carrying on the work of manufacturing these hats, they would be unable to complete their engagements.
"engaged in a combined scheme and effort to force all manufacturers of fur hats in the United States, including the plaintiffs, against their will and their previous policy of carrying on their business, to organize their workmen in the departments of making and finishing, in each of their factories, into an organization, to be part and parcel of the said combination known as The United Hatters of North America, or, as the defendants and their confederates term it, to unionize their shops, with the intent thereby to control the employment of labor in and the operation of said factories and to subject the same to the direction and control of persons, other than the owners of the same, in a manner extremely onerous and distasteful to such owners, and to carry out such scheme, effort and purpose by restraining and destroying the interstate trade and commerce of such manufacturers by means of intimidation of and threats made to such manufacturers and their customers in the several States of boycotting them, their product and their customers, using therefor all the powerful means at their command, as aforesaid, until such time as, from the damage and loss of business resulting therefrom, the said manufacturers should yield to the said demand to unionize their factories."
That the conspiracy or combination was so far progressed that, out of eighty-two manufacturers of this country engaged in the production of fur hats, seventy had accepted the terms and acceded to the demand that the shop should be conducted in accordance, so far as conditions of employment were concerned, with the will of the American Federation of Labor; that the local union demanded of plaintiffs that they should unionize their shop under peril of being boycotted by this combination, which demand defendants declined to comply with; that thereupon the American Federation of Labor, acting through its official organ and through its organizers, declared a boycott.
"20. On or about July 25, 1902, the defendants, individually and collectively and as members of said combinations and associations, and with other persons whose names are unknown to the plaintiffs, associated with them, in pursuance of the general scheme and purpose aforesaid, to force all manufacturers of fur hats, and particularly the plaintiffs, to so unionize their factories, wantonly, wrongfully, maliciously, unlawfully and in violation of the provisions of the 'Act of Congress, approved July 2, 1890,' and entitled 'An Act to Protect Trade and Commerce Against Unlawful Restraints and Monopolies,' and with intent to injure the property and business of the plaintiffs by.means of acts done which are forbidden and declared to be unlawful by said act of Congress, entered into a combination and conspiracy to restrain the plaintiffs and their customers in States other than Connecticut, in carrying on said trade and commerce among the several States, and to wholly prevent them from engaging in and carrying on said trade and commerce between them and to prevent the plaintiffs from selling their hats to wholesale dealers and purchasers in said States other than Connecticut, and to prevent said dealers and customers in said other States from buying the same, and to prevent the plaintiffs from obtaining orders for their hats from such customers, and filling the same, and shipping said hats to said customers in said States as aforesaid, and thereby injure the plaintiffs in their property and business and to render unsalable the product and output of their said factory, so the subject of interstate commerce, in whosoever's hands the same might be or come, through said interstate trade and commerce, and to employ as means to carry out said combination and conspiracy and the purposes thereof, and accomplish the same, the following measures and acts, viz: "
teach boys, who were intended to take their places after seven months' instruction, and had driven their employes to extreme measures"
"by their persistent, unfair and un-American policy of antagonizing union labor, forcing wages to a starvation scale, and given boys and cheap, unskilled foreign labor preference over experienced and capable union workmen,"
"in order to intimidate said dealers from purchasing said hats by reason of the prejudice thereby created against the plaintiffs and the hats made by them among those who might otherwise purchase them; to use the said union label of said The United Hatters of North America as an instrument to aid them in carrying out said conspiracy and combination against the plaintiffs' and their customers' interstate trade aforesaid, and, in connection with the boycotting above-mentioned, for the purpose of describing and identifying the hats of the plaintiffs and singling them out to be so boycotted; to employ a large number of agents to visit said wholesale dealers and their customers, at their several places of business, and threaten them with loss of business if they should buy or handle the hats of the plaintiffs, and thereby prevent them from buying said hats, and in connection therewith to cause said dealers to be waited upon by committees representing large combinations of persons in their several localities to make similar threats to them; to use the daily press in the localities where such wholesale dealers reside, and do business, to announce and advertise the said boycotts against the hats of the plaintiffs and said wholesale dealers, and thereby make the same more effective and oppressive, and to use the columns of their said paper, The Journal of the United Hatters of North America, for that purpose, and to describe the acts of their said agents in prosecuting the same."
plaintiffs were damaged in their business and property in some $80,000.
We think a case within the statute was set up, and that the demurrer should have been overruled.
Judgment reversed, and case remanded with a direction to proceed accordingly.
"a factory for the making of hats, for sale by them in the various States of the Union, and have for many years employed, at said factory, a large number of men in the manufacture and sale of said hats, and have invested in that branch of their business a large amount of capital, and, in their business of selling the product of their factory and filling orders for said hats, have built up and established a large interstate trade, employing more than two hundred and thirty (230) persons in making and annually selling hats of a value exceeding four hundred thousand (400,000) dollars."
"4. The plaintiffs, deeming it their right to manage and conduct their business without interference from individuals or associations not connected therewith, have for many years maintained the policy of refusing to suffer or permit any person or organization to direct or control their said business, and, in consequence of said policy, have conducted their said business upon the broad and patriotic principle of not discriminating against any person seeking employment because of his being or not being connected with any labor or other organization, and have refused to enter into agreement with any person or organization whereby the rights and privileges, either of themselves or any employee, would be jeopardized, surrendered to or controlled by said person or organization, and have believed said policy, which was and is well known to the defendants, to be absolutely necessary to the successful conduct of their said business and the welfare of their employes."
"5. The plaintiffs, for many years, have been and now are engaged in trade and commerce among the several States of the Union, in selling and shipping almost the whole of the product of their said factory by common carriers, from said Danbury to wholesale dealers residing and doing business in each of the States of Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, California and other States, to the amount of many hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in sending agents with samples from said Danbury into and through each of said States to visit said wholesale dealers at their places of business in said several States, and solicit and procure from them orders for said hats, to be filled by hats to be shipped from their said factory at said Danbury, by common carriers to said wholesale dealers, to be by them paid for after the delivery thereof at their several places of business."
"6. On July 25, 1902, the amount of capital invested by the plaintiffs in said business of making and selling hats, approximated one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, and the value of the hats annually sold and shipped by them in previous years to said dealers in States other than Connecticut exceeded four hundred thousand dollars, while the value of hats sold by them in the State of Connecticut did not exceed ten thousand dollars."
"7. On July 25, 1902, the plaintiffs had made preparations to do a large and profitable business with said wholesale dealers in other States, and the condition of their business was such as to warrant the full belief that the ensuing year would be the most successful in their experience. Their factory was then running to its full capacity in filling a large number of orders from such wholesale dealers in other States. They were then employing about one hundred and sixty men in the making and finishing departments, a large number in the trimming and other departments, whose work was dependent upon the previous work of the makers and finishers, and they then had about one hundred and fifty dozens of hats in process of manufacture, and in such condition as to be perishable and ruined if work was stopped upon them."
"8. The plaintiffs then were and now are almost wholly dependent upon the sale and shipments of hats as aforesaid, to said dealers in States other than Connecticut, to keep their said factory running and to dispose of its product and their capital in said business profitably employed, and the restraint, curtailment and destruction of their said trade and commerce with their said customers in said States other than Connecticut, by the combination, conspiracy and acts of the defendants, as hereinafter set forth, have been and now are of serious damage to the property and business of the plaintiffs, as hereinafter set forth."
"9. The individual defendants, named in this writ, are all members of a combination or association of persons, styling themselves The United Hatters of North America, and said combination includes more than nine thousand persons, residing in the several States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, California, and the Province of Ontario in the Dominion of Canada. The said combination is subdivided into twenty subcombinations, each of which is by themselves styled a local union of The United Hatters of North America. Six of said subcombinations are in the State of Connecticut, and known as local Unions 1 and 2, 10 and 11, and 15 and 16 of The United Hatters of North America, and have an aggregate membership of more than three thousand persons residing in the State of Connecticut."
"10. Said combination of persons, collectively known as The United Hatters of North America, owns, controls, edits, publishes, and issues a paper styled The Journal of the United Hatters of North America, in which are published reports of many of the acts of its agents, hereinafter mentioned, which circulates widely among its members and the public, and which affords a ready, convenient, powerful and effective vehicle for the dissemination of information to its members and the public as to boycotts declared and pushed by them, and of the acts and measures of its members and agents for carrying such boycotts into effect, and was so used by them in connection with the acts of the defendants hereinafter set forth."
"11. Said combination owns and absolutely controls the use of a certain label or distinguishing mark, which it styles the Union Label of the United Hatters of North America, which mark, when so used by them, affords to them a ready, convenient and effective instrument and means of boycotting the hats of any manufacturer against whom they may desire to use it for that purpose."
"12. The defendants in this suit are also all members of a combination or association of persons calling themselves and known as The American Federation of Labor, which includes more than a million and four hundred thousand members residing in the several States and Territories of the Union, and in the Dominion of Canada, and in all the places in the several States, where the wholesale dealers in hats, hereinbefore mentioned, and their customers reside, and do business. Said combination is subdivided in subordinate groups, or combinations, comprising one hundred and ten national and international unions and combination, of which the said combinations of persons styling themselves The United Hatters of North America is one, composed of twelve thousand local unions, twenty-eight State federations or combinations, more than five hundred central labor unions or combinations, and more than two thousand local unions or combinations, which are not included in the above-mentioned national and international combinations."
"13. Said combination of persons collectively known as The American Federation of Labor owns, controls, edits, publishes, and issues a paper or magazine called The American Federationist, which it declares to be its official organ and mouthpiece, which has a very wide circulation among its members and others, and which affords a ready, convenient, powerful and effective vehicle and instrument for the dissemination of information, as to persons, their products and manufactures, boycotted or to be boycotted, by its members, and as to measures adopted and statements to be published, detrimental to such persons and to the sale of their manufactures and for boycotting such persons, their manufactures, and said paper has been and now is constantly used, printed and distributed for said purposes among its members and the public and was so used by the defendants and their confederates in boycotting the products of the firm of F. Berg & Co., of Orange, New Jersey, and H. H. Roelofs & Co., of Philadelphia, Pa., hat manufacturers, to their very great injury and until the said firms successively yielded to their demands in pursuance of the general scheme of the defendants hereinafter set forth."
"14. The persons united in said combination, known as The American Federation of Labor, including the persons in said subcombination known as The United Hatters of North America, constantly employ more than one thousand agents in the States and Territories of the United States, to push, enforce and carry into effect all boycotts declared by the said members, including those in aid of the combined scheme, purpose and effort hereinafter stated, to force all the manufacturers of fur hats in the United States, including the plaintiffs, to unionize their factories by restraining and destroying their interstate trade and commerce, as hereinafter stated, all of which said agents act under the immediate supervision and personal direction of one Samuel Gompers, who is chief agent of the said combination of persons for said purpose, and of each of the said combinations, and the said agents make monthly reports of their doings in pushing and enforcing and causing to be pushed and enforced said boycotts, and publish the same monthly in said paper known as The American Federationist, of which he is the editor, appointed by the said members, which said paper, in connection with said statement or summary, is declared to be the authorized and official mouthpiece of each of said subcombinations, including the said United Hatters of North America. Said statement is declared by the defendants to be a faithful record of the doings of said agents, and each of said statements, made during the period covered by the acts of the defendants against the plaintiffs herein stated, contains the announcement to the members of said combination and the public that all boycotts declared by them are being by them and their agents pushed, enforced and observed."
"15. Said combination of persons collectively known as The American Federation of Labor, of which the defendants are members, was by the defendants and their other members formed for the purpose among others, of facilitating the declaration and successful maintenance of boycotts, by and for said combination of persons known as The United Hatters of North America, acting through the said Federation of Labor and its other component parts or members, and it and its component parts have frequently declared boycotts, at the request of the defendants, against the business and product of various hat manufacturers, and have vigorously prosecuted the same by and through the powerful machinery at their command as aforesaid, in carrying out their general scheme herein stated, to the great damage and loss of business of said manufacturers, and particularly during the years of 1901 and 1902, they declared, prosecuted and waged, at the request of the defendants and their agents, a boycott against the hats made by and the business of H. H. Roelofs Co., of Philadelphia, Pa. until, by causing them great damage and loss of business, they coerced them into yielding to the demand of the defendants and their agents, that the said factory of said Roelofs & Co. be unionized, as termed by the defendants, and into agreeing to employ, and employing exclusively, members of their said combination in the making and finishing departments of said factory, and in large measure surrendering to the defendants and their agents the control of said factory and business, all of which was well known to the plaintiffs, their customers, wholesale dealers and the public, and was, by the defendants and their agents, widely proclaimed through all their agencies above mentioned, in connection with their acts against the plaintiffs, as hereinafter set forth, for the purpose of intimidating and coercing said wholesale dealers and their customers from buying the hats of the plaintiffs, by creating in their minds the fear that the defendants would invoke and put into operation against them all said powerful means, measures and machinery if they should handle the hats of the plaintiffs."
"16. The defendants, together with the other persons united with them in said combination, known as The United Hatters of North America, have been for many years, and now are, engaged in a combined scheme and effort to force all manufacturers of fur hats in the United States, including the plaintiffs, against their will and their previous policy of carrying on their business, to organize their workmen in the departments of making and finishing, in each of their factories, into an organization, to be part and parcel of the said combination known as The United Hatters of North America, or as the defendants and their confederates term it, to unionize their shops, with the intent thereby to control the employment of labor in and the operation of said factories, and to subject the same to the direction and control of persons, other than the owners of the same, in a manner extremely onerous and distasteful to such owners, and to carry out such scheme, effort and purpose, by restraining and destroying the interstate trade and commerce of such manufacturers by means of intimidation of and threats made to such manufacturers and their customers in the several States, of boycotting them, their product and their customers, using therefor all the powerful means at their command as aforesaid, until such time as, from the damage and loss of business resulting therefrom, the said manufacturers should yield to the said demand to unionize their factories."
"17. The defendants and other members of said United Hatters of North America, acting with them and in pursuance of said general combined scheme and purpose, and in carrying the same into effect against said manufacturers, including the plaintiffs, and by use of the means above stated, and the fear thereof, have, within a very few years, forced the following named manufacturers of hats in the United States to yield to their demand, and unionize their factories, viz.: [here follow 70 names of corporations and individuals] and until there remained, according to the statements of the defendants, only twelve hat factories in the United States which had not submitted to their said demands, and the defendants, in pursuing their warfare against the plaintiffs, as hereinafter set forth, and in connection with their said acts against them, have made public announcement of that fact and of the firms so coerced by them, in order thereby to increase the effectiveness of their acts in intimidating said wholesale dealers and their customers in States other than Connecticut, from buying hats from plaintiffs, as hereinafter set forth."
"18. To carry out said scheme and purpose, the defendants have appointed, and employed and do steadily employ, certain special agents to act in their behalf, with full and express authority from them and the other members of said combination, and under explicit instructions from them, to use every means in their power to compel all such manufacturers of hats to so unionize their factories, and each and all of the defendants in this suit did the several acts hereinafter stated, either by themselves or their agents, by them thereto fully authorized."
"19. On or about March 1, 1901, in pursuance of said general scheme and purpose, the defendants and the other members of said combination, The United Hatters of North America, through their agents, the said John A. Moffit, Martin Lawlor, John Phillips, James P. Maher and Charles J. Barrett, who acted for themselves and the other defendants, demanded of the plaintiffs that they should unionize their said factory, in the making and finishing departments, and also thereby acquire the right to use and use the said union label, subject to the right of the defendants to recall the same at pleasure, in all hats made by them, and then notified the plaintiffs that, if they failed to yield to said demand, the defendants and all the other members of the said combination known as The United Hatters of North America, would resort to their said usual and well known methods to compel them so to do. After several conferences, and in April, 1901, the plaintiffs replied to the said demand of the defendants as follows:"
" Firmly believing that we are acting for the best interests of our firm, for the best interests of those whom we employ, and for the best interests of Danbury, by operating an independent or open factory, we hereby notify you that we decline to have our shop unionized, and if attacked, shall use all lawful means to protect our business interests."
"The plaintiffs were then employing many union and non-union men, and their said factory was running smoothly and satisfactorily both to the plaintiffs and their employes. The defendants, their confederates and agents, deferred the execution of their said threat against the plaintiffs until the conclusion of their attack made in pursuance of the same general scheme and purpose against H. H. Roelofs & Co., which resulted in the surrender of Roelofs & Co., on July 15, 1902, except that the defendants, their confederates and agents, in November, 1901, caused the said American Federation of Labor to declare a boycott against any dealer or dealers who should handle the products of the plaintiffs."
"20. On or about July 25, 1902, the defendants individually and collectively, and as members of said combinations and associations, and with other persons whose names are unknown to the plaintiffs, associated with them, in pursuance of the general scheme and purpose aforesaid, to force all manufacturers of fur hats, and particularly the plaintiffs, to so unionize their factories, wantonly, wrongfully, maliciously, unlawfully and in violation of the provisions of the 'Act of Congress, approved July 2, 1890,' and entitled 'An Act to Protect Trade and Commerce Against Unlawful Restraints and Monopolies,' and with intent to injure the property and business of the plaintiffs by means of acts done which are forbidden and declared to be unlawful, by said act of Congress, entered into a combination and conspiracy to restrain the plaintiffs and their customers in States other than Connecticut, in carrying on said trade and commerce among the several States and to wholly prevent them from engaging in and carrying on said trade and commerce between them and to prevent the plaintiffs from selling their hats to wholesale dealers and purchasers in said States other than Connecticut, and to prevent said dealers and customers in said other States from buying the same, and to prevent the plaintiffs from obtaining orders for their hats from such customers, and filling the same, and shipping said hats to said customers in said States as aforesaid, and thereby injure the plaintiffs in their property and business and to render unsalable the product and output of their said factory, so the subject of interstate commerce, in whosoever's hands the same might be or come, through said interstate trade and commerce, and to employ as means to carry out said combination and conspiracy and the purposes thereof, and accomplish the same, the following measures and acts, viz: "
"To cause, by means of threats and coercion, and without warning or information to the plaintiffs, the concerted and simultaneous withdrawal of all the makers and finishers of hats then working for them who were not members of their said combination, The United Hatters of North America, as well as those who were such members, and thereby cripple the operation of the plaintiffs' factory, and prevent the plaintiffs from filling a large number of orders then on hand, from such wholesale dealers in States other than Connecticut, which they had engaged to fill and were then in the act of filling, as was well known to the defendants; in connection therewith to declare a boycott against all hats made for sale and sold and delivered, or to be sold or delivered, by the plaintiffs to said wholesale dealers in States other than Connecticut, and to actively boycott the same and the business of those who should deal in them, and thereby prevent the sale of the same by those in whose hands they might be or come through said interstate trade in said several States; to procure and cause others of said combinations united with them in said American Federation of Labor, in like manner to declare a boycott against and to actively boycott the same and the business of such wholesale dealers as should buy or sell them, and of those who should purchase them from such wholesale dealers; to intimidate such wholesale dealers from purchasing or dealing in the hats of the plaintiff by informing them that the American Federation of Labor had declared a boycott against the product of the plaintiffs and against any dealer who should handle it, and that the same was to be actively pressed against them, and by distributing circulars containing notices that such dealers and their customers were to be boycotted; to threaten with a boycott those customers who should buy any goods whatever, even though union made, of such boycotted dealers, and at the same time to notify such wholesale dealers that they were at liberty to deal in the hats of any other non-union manufacturer of similar quality to those made by the plaintiffs, but must not deal in the hats made by the plaintiffs under threats of such boycotting; to falsely represent to said wholesale dealers and their customers that the plaintiffs had discriminated against the union men in their employ, had thrown them out of employment because they refused to give up their union cards and teach boys, who were intended to take their places after seven months' instruction, and had driven their employes to extreme measures"
"in order to intimidate said dealers from purchasing said hats by reason of the prejudice thereby created against the plaintiffs and the hats made by them among those who might otherwise purchase them; to use the said union label of said The United Hatters of North America as an instrument to aid them in carrying out said conspiracy and combination against the plaintiffs' and their customers' interstate trade aforesaid, and in connection with the boycotting above-mentioned, for the purpose of describing and identifying the hats of the plaintiffs, and singling them out to be so boycotted; to employ a large number of agents to visit said wholesale dealers and their customers, at their several places of business, and threaten them with loss of business if they should buy or handle the hats of the plaintiffs, and thereby prevent them from buying said hats, and, in connection therewith, to cause said dealers to be waited upon by committees representing large combinations of persons in their several localities to make similar threats to them; to use the daily press in the localities where such wholesale dealers reside and do business to announce and advertise the said boycotts against the hats of the plaintiffs and said wholesale dealers, and thereby make the same more effective and impressive, and to use the columns of their said paper, The Journal of the United Hatters of North America, for that purpose, and to describe the acts of their said agents in prosecuting the same."
"21. Afterwards, to-wit, on July 25, 1902, and on divers days since hitherto, the defendants, in pursuance of said combination and conspiracy, and to carry the same into effect, did cause the concerted and simultaneous withdrawal, by means of threats and coercion made by them, and without previous warning or information thereof to the plaintiffs, of all but ten of the nonunion makers and finishers of hats then working for them, as well as all of their union makers and finishers, leaving large numbers of hats in an unfinished and perishable condition, with intent to cripple, and did thereby cripple, the operation of the plaintiffs' factory until the latter part of October, 1902, and thereby prevented the plaintiffs from filling a large number of orders then on hand from such wholesale dealers in States other than Connecticut, which they had engaged to fill and were then in the act of filling, as well known to the defendants, and thereby caused the loss to the plaintiffs of many orders from said wholesale dealers in other States, and greatly hindered and delayed them in filling such orders, and falsely representing to said wholesale dealers, their customers, and the public generally in States other than Connecticut that the plaintiffs had discriminated against the union men in their employ, and had discharged or thrown out of employment their union men in August, 1902; that they had driven their employes to extreme measures by their persistent, unfair and un-American policy of antagonizing union labor, forcing wages down to a starvation scale and giving boys and cheap, unskilled foreign labor preference over experienced and capable workmen; that skilled hatters had been discharged from said factory for no other cause than their devotion and adherence to the principles of organized labor in refusing to give up their union cards, and to teach the trade to boys who were intended to take the place of union workmen after seven months' instruction, and that, unable to submit longer to a system of petty tyrannies that might be tolerated in Siberia but could not be borne by independent Americans, the workmen in the factory inaugurated the strike to compel the firm to recognize their rights, in order to prejudice, and did thereby prejudice, the public, against the plaintiffs and their product, and in order to intimidate, and did thereby intimidate said wholesale dealers and their customers, in States other than Connecticut, from purchasing hats from the plaintiffs by reason of the fear of the prejudice created against said hats, and in connection therewith declared a boycott "
"Affiliated with the American Federation of Labor"
"Secretary's Office, 927 Market Street"
"Rooms 405, 406, 407 Emma Spreckel's Building"
"Meets every Friday, at 1159 Mission St."
" San Francisco, July 3, 1903"
" At a special meeting of the San Francisco Labor Council held on the above date, the hat jobbing concern known as Triest & Co., 116 Sansome St., San Francisco, was declared unfair for persistently patronizing the unfair hat manufacturing concern of D. E. Loewe & Co., Danbury, Connecticut, where the union hatters have been on strike, for union conditions, since August 20, 1902. Triest & Co. will be retained on the unfair list as long as they handle the product of this unfair hat manufacturing concern. Union men do not usually patronize retail stores who buy from unfair jobbing houses or manufacturers. Under these circumstances, all friends of organized labor, and those desiring the patronage of organized workers, will not buy goods from Triest & Co., 116 Sansome St., San Francisco."
" President S.F. Labor Council"
" Secretary S.F. Labor Council. [L.S.]"
"Representing United Hatters of North America"
" Also the following, to-wit:"
"Affiliated with American Federation of Labor,"
"Meets every Friday at 1159 Mission St."
"Address all communications to 927 Market Street"
" San Francisco, July 14, 1903"
" Gentlemen: We beg leave to call your attention to the following products which are on the unfair list of the American Federation of Labor."
" We do this in order that you refrain from handling these goods, as the patronage of the firms named below is taken by the organized worker as an evidence of a desire to patronize those who are opposed to the interest of organized labor. The declaration of unfairness regarding the firms mentioned is fully sanctioned, and will be supported to the fullest degree by the San Francisco Labor Council."
" Trusting that you will be able to avoid the handling of these goods in the future, we are,"
" G. B. BENHAM, President."
"T. E. ZANT, Secretary [L.S.]"
" Loewe & Co., Danbury, Conn. and Triest & Co., 116 Sansome St., San Francisco, Hat Manufacturer;"
" Cluett, Peabody & Co., Shirts and Collars, Troy, New York, and 562 Mission St., San Francisco, Cal.;"
" United Shirt and Collar Co., Troy, New York, and 25 Sansome St., San Francisco, Cal.;"
" Van Zandt, Jacob & Co., Troy, New York; Greenbaum, Weil & Michaels, Selling Agent, 27 Sansome St., San Francisco, Cal."
"and caused said circulars to be mailed to and personally delivered to the retail dealer in hats, and the other customers of said Triest & Co., upon the Pacific coast, and to many others, thereby causing the loss of many orders and customers to said Triest & Co., and to the plaintiffs, for the purpose of intimidating and coercing said Triest & Co. not to deal with the plaintiff, and thereby cause the loss of many orders and customers to said Triest & Co., and to the plaintiffs."
"22. By means of each and all of said acts done by the defendants in pursuance of said combination and conspiracy, they have greatly restrained, diminished, and, in many places destroyed the trade and commerce of the plaintiffs with said wholesale dealer, in said States other than Connecticut, by the loss of many orders and customers directly resulting therefrom, and the plaintiff have been injured in their business and property by reason of said combination and conspiracy, and the act of the defendants done in pursuance thereof, and to carry the same into effect, which are declared to be unlawful by said act of Congress, to the amount of eighty thousand ($80,000) dollars, to recover threefold which damages, under section 7 of said act this suit is brought."

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 § 7
 § 6
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