The Pullman boycott : $b A complete history of the great R. R. strikeBurns, W. F.
History
The Pullman boycott : $b A complete history of the great R. R. strike
Burns, W. F.
Pullman Strike, 1894
As Attorney Gregory had previously moved that the information be
dismissed and the defendants discharged on their sworn answers, Attorney
Erwin followed by reading the answers.
At the conclusion of the reading he said that the defendants had made
and filed a motion to quash, holding that the information was not
sufficient. They now asked that the defendants be discharged, and also
that the district attorney and government counsel to elect whether they
should proceed under the indictment or under the contempt cases. No man
could be tried twice for the same offense. Judge Wood said that the
counsel for the government could proceed with either case. Attorney
Walker elected to go ahead with the contempt proceedings.
Attorney Gregory in the opening made an eloquent appeal for a trial by
jury instead of a criminal proceeding in a contempt case, as he held the
present proceeding to be. He cited a number of authorities in support of
his position. He argued that it was the rule that there could be no
appeal from the decision of a federal court in a contempt case, and that
consequently, where the question of a crime was involved, a sentence
from the court would practically be a conviction on the original
criminal charge without a trial by jury which is guaranteed by the
constitution.
Mr. Gregory then took up the question of the motion to dismiss the bill
on the grounds that the information did not set out in specific forms
any violation of the specifications in the injunction granted by the
United States court.
He held that the men had a right to combine, choose leaders to advise,
and quit work if they wished to do so and persuade others to quit work,
that the injunctions did not prohibit them from doing so. Judge Wood
asked if he considered that the defendants had a right to ask men to
tumble goods out of cars that were ready for transportation. Mr. Gregory
replied that he did not consider that they had any such right, and
claimed that there was nowhere in the information a distinct allegation
that the defendants had counseled violence or infractions of the orders
in the injunction. While he was willing to admit that violence had been
done during the present strike, nothing was charged in the information
that the violence was due to the acts of the defendants.
Attorney Walker for the government followed. He held that the defendants
had no right to go into other states and persuade men to quit work for
the purpose of paralyzing railroads, and that the issuance of these
orders was a willful and vicious violation of the order of the court.
Mr. Walker said the telegrams were the strongest evidence in the hands
of the state to show that this had been done. He spoke for three
quarters of an hour and directed his remarks more to the general charge
against the defendants for violation of the injunction, than to the
legal points raised by Mr. Gregory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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