As in
previous cases the court rejected the plea that a combination to raise
wages was illegal, and directed the attention of the jury to the
question of intimidation and coercion, especially as it affected third
parties. The defendants were found guilty.
In a third, a New York hatters' case of 1823, the charge of combining to
raise wages was entirely absent from the indictment. The issue turned
squarely on the question of conspiring to injure others by coercion and
intimidation. The hatters were adjudged guilty of combining to deprive a
non-union workman of his livelihood.
The revival of trade unionism in the middle of the thirties brought in,
as we saw, another crop of court cases.
In 1829 New York State had made "conspiracy to commit any act injurious
to public morals or to trade or commerce" a statutory offence, thus
reenforcing the existing common law. In 1835 the shoemakers of Geneva
struck to enforce the closed shop against a workman who persisted in
working below the union rate. The indictment went no further than
charging this offence. The journeymen were convicted in a lower court
and appealed to the Supreme Court of the State.
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