"(1)
Complainants are partners doing business in the city of
Detroit, under the name of Jacob Beck & Sons, having their
mill and place of business at 245, 247, 249, and 251 West
Congress street. At their place of business, on West Congress
street, aforesaid, they carry on a general milling business
namely, of manufacturing and milling cereal products. They
also deal in oats, grain, meal, and other cereals, and have
had for years a large trade established in the city of
Detroit and elsewhere. In carrying on such business they
always use a number of horses, trucks, and wagons for use in
trucking and carrying from the elevators, the cars, and
elsewhere the different cereals which they
use in the process of manufacture and sale, and also in
delivering said cereals, either manufactured
or unmanufactured, to the elevators, cars, and other
customers in the city of Detroit and elsewhere.
"(2)
Complainants have built up and established a large and
valuable city trade, and have a large number of regular
customers throughout the city, who buy almost daily of
complainants some of their products, sometimes sending their
own wagons and teams for the merchandise so purchased, and at
other times relying on complainants to deliver the same. The
trade so built up they have had, until very recently, for a
number of years, and is to quite a large extent a cash trade
and a valuable one.
"(3)
Complainants further aver that in July, 1897, they had in
their employ five teamsters, named Michael Walpole, H
McHugh, C. Fox, W. Pfoff, and Edward Hupp. These teamsters
had been in the employ of the complainants for some time.
Early in July, 1897, the above-named teamsters came to the
office of complainants, and requested that they be paid
higher wages. Complainants, in answer to such request, asked
the said teamsters how much they wanted, to which they
replied that they wanted $9 a week for single wagons, and
$10.50 for double wagons. Thereupon complainant George Beck
asked said Walpole, McHugh, and others, last named, whether
they would be satisfied if they were given those wages
whereupon said Walpole replied, in effect, as follows
'The wages do not cut any figure, but it is the scale we
want you to sign.' Said Walpole and others were then told
that they could have a reply that same evening, said
conversation being in the morning. In the evening of the same
day, shortly after six o'clock, said Walpole, McHugh, and
others came with another person, whom they said was the
delegate of the Railway Teamsters' Protective Union. They
were asked what was meant by the scale which they demanded
should be signed, whereupon they produced a written agreement
which they had already prepared. A copy of this agreement is
hereto attached, and made a part of this bill. Complainants
not having examined said written agreement called the
'Scale,' it was agreed that the complainants should
have a week to examine and consider the same. Subsequently
complainants examined the agreement, and on or about the 1st
day of August informed the executive committee of the Railway
Teamsters' Protective Union, who seemed
to have the matter in charge, and particularly one George
Innis, representing said union, that they (the complainants)
had decided not to sign the scale, and refused to sign the
same. In the meantime complainants' horses had all been
sent to their farm in the country, near Plymouth, and all of
the trucking and teaming of the business of complainants had
been turned over temporarily to the Shedden Cartage Company,
Limited, and to Ferguson & Co. At the time said executive
committee called. being on or about the 1st of August,
complainants informed them of the last-named facts; also that
they, the complainants, would bring their teams back from the
farm in the fall, and that they would inform them when their
teams would be put at work again. About the time that the
complainants' teams were sent out into the country, and
having no further use then for said teamsters Walpole,
McHugh, Fox, Pfoff, and Hupp, they were so notified and quit
working for complainants. In the meantime the said Walpole,
McHugh, Fox, Pfoff, and Hupp, as complainants are informed
and believe, and so allege, had joined the association called
the Railway Teamsters' Protective Union. Some time after
they had been discharged, and after they had joined said
union, said Walpole, Pfoff, and Hupp came to complainants,
and informed them that they had been out of employment ever
since they had left the employment of complainants,
represented that they were without means to support their
families, and that their families were in want; and thereupon
complainants, although their teams were still in the country
and having no use for their teamsters, employed said Walpole,
Pfoff, and Hupp for work in their mill as extra men. They
continued to employ said men in their mill until October 25,
1897. At the time said men returned to the complainants'
employ they informed complainants they had withdrawn from the
Railway Teamsters' Protective Union.
"(4)
Complainants further allege that on Saturday, October 23
1897, they informed George Innis, a resident of Detroit, who
belongs to the Railway Teamsters' Protective Union, and
who is the walking or traveling delegate of the Railway
Teamsters' Protective Union, that they intended putting
on their own teams again on Monday, October 25th, and that
the three men who went out and joined their union, namely,
Walpole, Pfoff, and Hupp, before mentioned, would on the 25th
day of October again start driving for
complainants. Complainants so informed Innis simply because
they had agreed to so inform him, and as he represented the
Railway Teamsters' Protective Union. Complainants further
allege that on the morning of the 27th of October said George
Innis, with a large number of others, whom said Innis
represented belonged to the Railway Teamsters' Protective
Union, and were members of committees thereof, numbering in
all from fifteen to twenty, appeared in the street in front
of the mill of said complainants, on Congress street. Your
orators are unable at the time of filing this bill to
ascertain the names of all of the parties who accompanied
said Innis, but they were informed by said Innis, and also by
a number of the other men, that they belonged to the Railway
Teamsters' Protective Union, and they were also then
informed by said Innis that the purpose of said Innis and his
associates there, and the purpose of said Railway
Teamsters' Protective Union
was, by threat and by organized effort and by boycotting, to
prevent and persuade and compel people from having any
business relations or dealings with the said complainants,
Jacob Beck & Sons, and to prevent, if possible, any teams of
customers from visiting complainants' mill and place of
business, and also to prevent any teamsters continuing in or
entering the employment of said Jacob Beck & Sons until said
Jacob Beck & Sons had signed the 'Scale' heretofore
referred to. And your orators allege and charge that said
George Innis, as walking or traveling delegate or
representative of the Railway Teamsters' Protective
Union, and the Railway Teamsters' Protective Union,
acting through its representatives and members, and its
committees or walking delegates, so called, are unlawfully
and wrongfully combining and confederating together to
prevent, by intimidation and threats, all persons from
patronizing complainants, or buying merchandise from them, or
visiting their mill premises for business purposes; and that
the said Railway Teamsters' Protective Union, the said
George Innis, and his associates and confederates, whose
names are at this moment unknown to these complainants,
began, and have since constantly pursued, a course of threats
and intimidation and persuasion for the purpose, by means of
such intimidation and threats and fear, not only to prevent
customers from buying of complainants, but also to intimidate
and prevent the employ�s of complainants from
continuing in their employ, and from peaceably or otherwise
pursuing their work in complainants' mill. And your
orators show that the said George Innis, the said Railway
Teamsters' Protective Union, and its members, and also
the members of the Detroit Council of Trades and Labor
Unions, hereinafter mentioned, have intruded into the mill
premises and buildings where the men employed by your orators
were at work, and have solicited men who were peaceably
pursuing their avocations, and who were satisfied to remain
in the employment of your orators, and also have threatened
and attempted to intimidate them to quit the employment of
your orators, with the purpose and intent, as your orators
charge, of preventing your orators from continuing their said
business, and thus to force your orators to submit to the
terms proposed in said scale. That said solicitation of the
employ�s of your orators, and said intrusion...
