295 Opinion of the Court. operators to force wages down to meet the competition of non-union mines, accompanied by assurances by the union representatives that they would do everything to unionize the competing non-union mines and enable the union mine operators to maintain the scale insisted on. We thought at the first hearing and we think now that none of this evidence tends to establish the participation of the International in the Prairie Creek strike and disturbances. The new evidence adduced for the purpose is chiefly the testimony of one James K. McNamara. He was the secretary of Local Union No. 1526 at Hartford and checkweighman at Mine No. 4 of the Central Coal & Coke Company, a union mine which was a competitor of the Bache-Denman mines and of larger capacity and business. McNamara seems to have been the field leader of the union forces at the battle of July 17, 1914. He was tried with others and convicted for violation of the injunction as a conspiracy to defeat the process of the federal court, and was confined in the Leavenworth penitentiary. His testimony at the second trial was that in May, 1914, between the riot of April and the July battle, he went to Fort Smith to see Pete Stewart, the President of District No. 21, who was ill; that Stewart told him that he had been to Kansas City and had a talk with White, the International President, and that they had arranged a plan there to prevent Bache from producing coal. He said that White wished to see McNamara. Thereafter White came to Fort Smith to participate in the trial of the secretary of No. 21, already mentioned, between the 18th and 23rd of May. McNamara said he went to Fort Smith and met one Jim Slankard, who was a town marshal in Hartford, Sebastian County, and a very active promoter of union violence in this case, that Slankard told him that White wished to see him at the hotel, that he and Slankard went to White's room, that Opinion of the Court. 268 U.S. White said, "How is things at Prairie Creek?” that the witness said, "Things are a little watery in Prairie Creek No. 4, yet," referring to the pumping of the water out of the mine which was going on, to which White replied: "Yes, I have been informed on that"; and then said, "Stewart told me that they can not get enough men to operate the mine." And continued, "If they do that, we must prevent the coal from getting into the market." Q. Did he say why? A. Yes sir. Q. Tell it. A. He said, “because if Bache coal, scab dug coal got into the market it would only be a matter of time until every union operator in that country would have to close down his mine, or scab it, because the union operators could not meet Bache competition." Q. Did he say anything more after that? A. Yes sir. Q. What did he say? A. He said, "When you go back to Hartford," he said, "I want you to tell the men what I have told you, but don't tell them I have told you." Q. Did he say why not? A. Yes sir, he said he did not want the National Organization mixed up in this case; he said, "So far you have handled it, this part, and we have West Virginia and Colorado on our hands, and we can not bear any more fights." Q. After that, did you go up and down the valley, as he said? A. I went back to Hartford and just quietly told the men what he said. Q. How many of them did you tell, in a general way? A. I don't remember, I told practically everybody, I suppose. Q. What did you tell them? A. I told them what White told me. Q. Tell them the reasons, as he had given them to you? A. Yes sir. Q. And in pursuance of that, was that doctrine told all over the valley? A. Yes sir. I told the men we wouldn't do anything until Bache begun producing coal. 295 Opinion of the Court. Q. Now did you know what Pete Stewart did on Monday following that convention about going around the field? A. He came to Hartford and made a speech. He said he would furnish guns and ammunition to all these men and their families in that valley, and if it was necessary he would sacrifice his own life to prevent Bache getting coal out there. McNamara further testified that he saw between three and four hundred guns in boxes at Hartford and that part of them were distributed to the union miners and part returned to the secretary of District No. 21 at McAlester, Oklahoma. It was an avowed grievance of McNamara that he had not been paid sufficient money for the sacrifices he had made to the union cause. He said he had received $250 after the battle of July 17 from Stewart of District No. 21 to enable him to escape and avoid arrest, and something more later, but nothing from White or the International. He volunteered in his cross-examination the statement that White said to him at the interview: "Now you boys will not lose a day and your expenses will be paid for every day you are in this trouble." He was led by other questions to add that the trouble referred to by White was his suffering in the penitentiary. When it was called to his attention that his conversation with White in May, 1914, was before he had gone to the penitentiary, he found it necessary to qualify his statement and in answer to the question: "Did you have any arrangements to get money from him then?" said: "It was generally understood that the National Organization was going to pay us for the time we lost and I thought the only man to go to would be White to get it, because he was the National President." And so, he said, two years after he had finished his term at the penitentiary, he met White at Hartford and asked him "When will I get my money that I was promised for this work?" to which White replied: "I will take it up with the Board as soon as I can." But he said he never got any money. We do not regard this as evidence that he was promised or received money from the International either to induce or reward his unlawful acts. Giving the fullest credence to all that McNamara says, it is clear that White did not intend by what he did to make the Prairie Creek difficulty a national affair. The International Board had not approved as the constitution required that they should do in order to make it so. It is quite true that White himself personally can be held as a defendant, if McNamara's evidence is to be believed, for urging and abetting the destruction of the plaintiffs' property; but according to McNamara's testimony, repeated by him several times, White was particular to insist that he did not wish to be regarded as acting for the International in the matter or to involve it in the Prairie Creek difficulties. In our previous opinion we held that a trades-union, organized as effectively as this United Mine Workers' organization was, might be held liable, and all its funds raised for the purpose of strikes might be levied upon to pay damages suffered through illegal methods in carrying them on; but certainly it must be clearly shown in order to impose such a liability on an association of 450,000 men that what was done was done by their agents in accordance with their fundamental agreement of association. As we said in our previous opinion, 259 U. S. 395: "A corporation is responsible for the wrongs committed by its agents in the course of its business, and this principle is enforced against the contention that torts are ultra vires of the corporation. But it must be shown that it is in the business of the corporation. Surely no stricter rule can be enforced against an unincorporated organization like this. Here it is not a question of contract or of holding out an appearance of authority on which some 295 Opinion of the Court. third person acts. It is a mere question of actual agency which the constitutions of the two bodies settle conclusively." Again: "But it is said that the District was doing the work of the International and carrying out its policies and this circumstance makes the former an agent. We can not agree to this in the face of the specific stipulation between them that in such case unless the International expressly assumed responsibility, the District must meet it alone." The action of the trial court in its direction of a verdict for the defendant, the International Union, must be affirmed. Second. The tendency of the evidence to show that District No. 21 through its authorized leaders and agents and certain of its subordinate local unions organized and carried through the two attacks of April 6th and July 17th is so clear that it does not need further discussion. The only issue is whether the outrages, destruction and crimes committed were intentionally directed toward a restraint of interstate commerce. On the first trial we held that the evidence did not show this. The circustances seemed amply to supply a different and a merely local motive for the conspiracy. The hostility of the head of District No. 21 and that of his men seemed sufficiently aroused by the coming of non-union men into that local community, by Mr. Bache's alleged breach of his contract with District No. 21 in employing non-union men three months before it expired, by his charged evasion of it through a manipulation of his numerous corporations, by his advertised anticipation of trespass and violence in his warning notices, in his enclosing his mining premises with a cable, and in stationing guards with guns to defend them. These preparations in the heart of a territory that had been completely unionized for years were likely to stir a bitterness of spirit in the neighborhood. Bache |