Commonwealth v. Meads

• Decision Date: 20 November 1905
• Docket Number: 18-1905
• Citation: 29 Pa.Super. 321
• Parties: Commonwealth v. Meads, Appellant
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

29 Pa.Super. 321

Commonwealth v. Meads, Appellant

No. 18-1905

Superior Court of Pennsylvania

November 20, 1905

Argued October 24, 1904 [Syllabus Matter] [Syllabus Matter] [Syllabus Matter] [Syllabus Matter]

Appeal by defendant, from judgment of Q. S. Adams Co.-1904, No. 6, on verdict of guilty in case of Commonwealth v. N. G. Meads.

Indictment for counterfeiting union cigar labels. Before Swope, P. J.

The court charged in part as follows:

[Now gentlemen, we have been lately hearing a great deal about labor unions, about strikes and the difficulty and agitation between labor and capital in different sections of the country.

Let me say to you, gentlemen, that in the stirring times in which we are now living, with so much combination of efforts and organization of power, and with so much accomplished by combination and unity of action for the furtherance of ends, that it is not only the privilege, legal right, but in our opinion, bounden duty of labor to organize for its protection, and that if they fail to do so that their truest interest might soon be crushed under the pitiless juggernaut of conscienceless capital. It is entirely proper, legal and right for capital to combine and to organize for the proper ends, and it is equally right, legal and proper for labor to do the same thing. The labor of this country, as of all others, constitutes the great mass of our humanity. " The laborer is worthy of his hire." That has been a blessed injunction that has been given to us from the dawn of the new dispensation. For the cigar makers of this nation to form themselves into a union for the purpose, alleged by the formation of this union, to benefit their condition socially, financially, morally and intellectually is certainly a most commendable effort, and ought to result for all in great and general benefit and blessing. Labor, combined and acting in union, can protect her interests, but without combination, and union of efforts they will be helpless to do so. They would be like a great army unable to accomplish what it ought to accomplish, if it is without organization, discipline and leadership. The Cigar Makers' International Union of America, after the passage of this act of assembly in 1895, originally adopted a trade-mark to identify their goods and fully comply with the law in all its provisions with reference to it. That was an honorable thing to do, gentlemen; that was the proper thing to do, guarding the manufacture of their products in the interests of hygiene by seeing that workmen were provided with proper places in which to work; seeking to control, in a measure, the price of labeling, as they claim, no doubt, the best skilled workmen, cigar makers, and they stamp their products with the union label, not enforcing any one to buy, not trying to compel them to buy, but a mere putting on of their union stamps inviting every one to buy because it has the union label.]

[Now gentlemen, this is a case, as I said to you in the beginning, that may well command your careful attention. If you believe the testimony of Mr. Meads; he admits these cigars were packed by his packers; he admits that he went to the express office and addressed them to Mr. Hershey at Gardner's station in this county; that when they were packed they had not this counterfeit union label on; that he did not put it on; that he ordered no one else to put it on. If you believe the testimony of Jackson and Stine in corroboration of that fact, then he is not guilty. If under testimony the commonwealth fail to prove that he had this knowledge beyond a reasonable doubt, you would not be justified in finding him guilty, but, gentlemen, search for and find the real facts in this case; that is the bounden duty resting upon you. If these men are telling the truth, he is not guilty, but can you believe them; as reasonable men do you believe them? You are not, it is true, to find out who put these stamps on, if you find the defendant did not. What are you to believe as reasonable men, beyond a reasonable doubt? How did these admittedly counterfeit union labels get upon those boxes, received, if you believe they were so received, with them on at Gardner's station in December and November, 1903? If you believe they were on, who put them on? Has the commonwealth, from all the testimony, established beyond a reasonable doubt that Meads did, or had it done? If so he is guilty of their being there; if they have not he is not guilty.

Do not be taken away because three men swear a certain thing. You are not to measure the testimony by the weight of numbers. If, from all the testimony, you believe the three men are falsifying, and simple circumstances only stand against it, and you must find in favor of what you believe to be, beyond a reasonable doubt, the truth. You are not mere measurers, measuring numbers.]

[The testimony on the part of the commonwealth -- we will simply mention the names of the witnesses -- was begun by calling H. H. Hershey. Mr. Hershey is one of the most reputable citizens, as you all know, a man who has been in business for some time in the borough of York Springs.

Mr. Hershey admits that he aided these representatives of the cigarmakers' union to discover what they claimed was a violation of the law, the protection of which was dear to them. There has been much said about Mr. Hershey's connection with this. He admits, by reason of writing the letters, going to the station and bringing the goods from the station, he was paid about $ 20.00. Mr. Hershey, gentlemen, says he was not trying to have them commit a crime, but he was aiding these men to discover them in the commission of a crime, if they were committing a crime, and are you justified in saying improperly to discover a crime that was alleged to have been committed and that was done in covert? We submit not.

Mr. Miller stands in the same relation as Mr. Hershey; he is a citizen of this county and constable for that district.

I. B. Kuhn is called as witness on the part of the commonwealth. He is a representative and an employee of this cigarmakers' union. Geo. P. Allen is also in the same way.

Mr. Kuhn and Mr. Allen are not to be disbelieved simply because they have been acting in the capacity of detective work for this union. They are not to be discredited because the union, in the interests of labor, pays them a reasonable, or what you may think a very liberal, salary, for they would, in the choice of men for this work choose men of such character.

They are not to have the odium of untruthfulness cast upon them unless the circumstances of this case justify you in believing them to be; they are to be believed although they are agents of this company and have been appointed to look up infractions of the law, unless under the circumstances surrounding their testimony here you have reasonable cause to disbelieve them.

Geo. P. Allen was called, who testified -- he was one of the agents of this union, and for that reason he was not to be disbelieved unless you find from his manner and environment, you are not entitled to give him credence.]

[If you find from the testimony in this case that Mr. Meads aided and abetted in the shipment of these cigars which contained counterfeit labels; aided and assisted in putting them into the hands of the innocent agent of the Adams Express Company, consigned them to Mr. Hershey at Gardner's station, subject to examination, we instruct you, as a matter of law, that there would be such using and such displaying of counterfeit label as would come within the prohibition of this act and within the jurisdiction of this court.

If you determine that this label upon these cigars was a counterfeit union label, then you will determine whether Meads aided and assisted in sending them with these counterfeit union labels on, from Red Lion to Gardner's station in Adams county.

I do not propose to refer to any more testimony. We intend to leave it to you and your recollection of it and to your determination as to what the true facts in this case are. Was this a counterfeit? Were the goods shipped through the Adams Express Company with this counterfeit label on to Mr. Hershey at Gardner's station, November 14 and December 14, with the direction or procurement of Mr. Meads? If you believe that to be established beyond a reasonable doubt, you should find the defendant guilty in manner and form as he stands indicted.]

[Haines testifies that these letters, all of which you will read and remember, were written by him and they were written at the dictation and with the knowledge of Meads, not that Meads formulated their wording and dictated to him as he wrote it down on the typewriter, but that he acquainted him with all Mr. Hershey's letters and he answered them as advised to do by Meads.

Moses Stine and Wm. Henry Jackson were called as witnesses. Both have been working, one for three years and one possibly longer than that, and you may find they are both now in the employ of Meads; at least one of them is.]

[Now, gentlemen, in every criminal case the jury have nothing to do with the punishment; that is fixed by the law in the discretion of the court. Your duty alone is to determine the fact of innocence or guilt under the evidence and the law. The responsibility of the punishment is not with you and you will not allow it to unduly influence you in any way at all. It can be very heavily punished and it ought to be very heavily punished.]

Verdict of guilty on which the prisoner was sentenced to imprisonment in jail for one year and eight months.

Errors assigned among others were in refusing to quash the bill; in refusing to give binding instructions for defendants on the ground that the offense was not committed in Adams county and above instructions,...