ST. LOUIS STRIKE SEQUEL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3272, 18 July 1911, Page 5

ST. LOUIS STRIKE SEQUEL.

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

DECISION

At Washington on May loth the United States Supreme Court handed down their decision in what has become known as the “Labor contempt case/’ which, owing to the prominence of the persons involved, as well as the magnitude of the issues raised, is one of the greatest public interest. The principals in the suit are Mr Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, and Messrs John -Mitchell and Frank Morrison, vice-president and secretary respectively of the same organisation. The issues, as urged by the Labor leaders, are the right of free speech, a free Press, and the boycott. The case grew out of a strike of metal polishers employed by a St. Louis firm of stove and range manufacturers in 1906. The men’s union instituted. a boycott, and the American Federation of Labor supported the union by extending the boycott throughout the States. After more than a year the firm affected obtained from Mr Justice Gould, of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, a temporary injunction -restraining the federation from continuing the boycott, and from publishing the name of the firm in its official list of “unfair” employers. None the. less, boycott and publication both continued, and the District Court, to,.which the matter was taken, found that Messrs Gompers, Mitchell, and Morrison had been guilty of contempt of court in deliberately violating the injunction. Mr Gompers -was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, Mr Mitchell to nine months, and Mr Morrison to six months. The defendants appealed, but the District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed the lower Court’s order. The case was then taken to the United States Supreme Court, who gave a decision in favor of the Labor leaders by remanding the case to the lower Court, with instructions to impose fines for contempt in place of the sentences of imprisonment.. It will be seen, however., that the victory for Mr Gompers and his colleagues is only a partial one, .since their disclaimer of deliberate contempt and their putting forward of the issues. of free speech and a free press are rejected.