14 Wend. 9 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1835
By the Court,
We have the authority of Hawkins for saying that a plea of a former indictment pending for the same offence is bad, Hawkins’ P. C., book 2, ch. 34, § 1; and by our revised statute, 2 R. S. 726, § 42, the first indictment is superseded by the second, and liable to be quashed. It is not therefore a bar to such second indictment.
The only question, therefore, is the one decided by the court below, whether the offence charged is indictable.
The legislature have given us their definition of conspiracies, and abrogated the common law on the subject. We must therefore see whether this case comes within the statute. The legislature have said, “ If two or more persons shall conspire, either I. To commit any offence; or 2. Falsely and maliciously to indict another for any offence, or to procure another to be charged or arrested for any such offence ; or 3. Falsely to move or maintain any suit; or 4. To cheat and defraud any person of any property by any means which are in themselves criminal; or 5. To cheat and defraud any person of any property, by any means which if executed would amount to a cheat, or to obtaining money or property by false pretences; or 6. To commit any act injurious to the public health, to public morals, or to trade or commerce; or for the
The conspiracy in this case was not to commit an offence within the meaning of the statute ; the raising of wages is no offence—the conspiracy is the offence, if any has been committed. Nor was the object to indict any one ; to move or maintain a suit; to cheat any one by criminal means, or by any means which, if executed, would amount to a cheat; nor to obstruct the course of justice or the administration of the laws. '
The question therefore is, is a conspiracy to raise the wages of journeymen shoemakers an act injurious to trade or commerce ? The words trade and commerce are said by Jacobs, in his Law Dictionary, not to be synonymous; that commerce relates to dealings with foreign nations ; trade, on the contrary, means mutual traffic among ourselves, or the buying, selling or exchange of articles between members of the same community. That the raising of wages and a conspiracy, confederacy or mutual agreement among journeymen for that purpose is a matter of public concern, and in which the public have a deep interest, there can be no doubt. That it was an indictable offence at common law is established by legal adjudications. In The King v. Journeymen Tailors of Cambridge, 8 Mod. 11, the defendants were indicted for a conspiracy among themselves to raise their wages; they were found guilty, and moved in arrest, among other things, that no crime appeared upon the face of the indictment. To this the court answer, that it is true that the indictment sets forth that the defendants denied to work under such wages as they demanded, but it was not for the denial, but the conspiracy, they were indicted ; and the court add, that a conspiracy of any kind is illegal, though the matter about which they conspired might have been lawful for them or any of them to do
Whatever disputes may exist among political economists upon the point, I think there can be no doubt, in a legal sense, but what the wages of labor compose a material portion of the value of manufactured articles. The products of mechanical labor compose a large proportion of the materials with which trade is carried on. By trade, I now understand traffic or mutual dealings between members of the same community, or internal trade. Coarse boots and shoes are madein many parts of our country; not for particular persons who are to wear them, but as an article of trade and commerce. Probably such is the case in Geneva, where this offence was com
If combinations of this description are lawful in Geneva, they are so in every other place. If the boot makers may say that boots shall not be made for less than one dollar per pair, it is optional with them to say that ten or even fifty dollars shall be paid, and no man can wear a pair of boots without giving such price as the journeymen boot makers may choose to require. This, I apprehend, would be a monopoly of the most odious kind. The journeymen mechanics might, by fixing their own wages, regulate the prices of all manufactured articles, and the community be enormously taxed. Should the journeymen bakers refuse to work, unless for enormous wages, which the master bakers could not afford to pay, and should they compel all the journeymen in a city to stop work, the whole population must be without bread. So of journeymen tailors, or mechanics of any description. Such combinations would be productive of derangement and confusion, which certainly must be considered “injurious to trade.” Such consequences would follow were such combinations universal. It is true, that no great danger is to be apprehended on account of the impracticability of such universal combinations. But if universally or even generally entered into, they would be prejudicial to trade and to the public; they are wrong in each particular case. The truth is, that industry requires no such means to support it. Competition is the life of trade. If the defendants cannot make coarse boots for less than one dollar per pair, let them refuse to do so; but let them not directly or indirectly undertake to say that others shall not do the work for a less price. It may he that Pennock, from greater industry or greater skill, made more profit by making boots at seventy-five cents per pair than thedefendants at a dollar. He had a right to work for what he pleased. His employer had a right to employ him for such price as they could agree upon. The interference of the defendants was unlawful; its tendency is not only to individual oppression, but to public inconvenience and embarrassment.
Judgment accordingly.