LOCKOUTS, and TRADE UNIONS.
The Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act.—The criminal side is regulated by the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, 1875, which enacted by s. 3 that "an agreement or combination by two or more persons to do, or procure to be done, any act in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute between employers and workmen shall not be indictable as a conspiracy, if such act committed by one person would not be punishable as a crime. By s. 4 of that statute a person employed on the supply of gas and water, breaking his contract with his employer, and knowing or having reasonable cause to believe, that the conse quence of his doing so, either alone or in combination with others, will be to deprive the inhabitants of the place wholly or to a great extent of their supply of gas or water, shall be liable on conviction to a penalty not exceeding L20, or a term of imprisonment not exceeding three months. And by s. 5 any person wilfully and maliciously breaking a contract of service or hiring, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the probable consequences of his. so doing either alone or in combination with others will be to endanger human life or cause serious bodily injury, or to expose valuable property whether real or personal to destruction or serious injury, shall be liable to the same penalty. By s. 7 every person who, with a view to compel any other person to abstain from doing or to do any act which such other person has a legal right to do or abstain from doing, wrongfully and without legal authority, (I ) uses violence to or intimidates such other person, or his wife and children, or injures his property ; or (2) persist ently follows such other person about from place to place; or (3) hides any tools, clothes or other property owned or used by such other person, or deprives him of or hinders him in the use thereof ; or (4) watches or besets the house or other place where such other person resides or works, or carries on business, or happens to be, or the approach to such house or place; or (5 ) follows such other person with two or more other persons, in a disorderly manner, in or through any street or road, shall be liable to the before-mentioned penalties." The Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act, 1927, pre scribes that : "3. (I) It is hereby declared that it is unlawful for one or more persons (whether acting on their own behalf or on behalf of a trade union or of an individual employer or firm, and notwithstanding that they may be acting in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute) to attend at or near a house or place where a person resides or works or carries on business or happens to be, for the purpose of obtaining or communicating information or of persuading or inducing any person to work or to abstain from working, if they so attend in such numbers or otherwise in such manner as to be calculated to intimidate any person in that house or place, or to obstruct the approach thereto or egress therefrom, or to lead to a breach of the peace; and attending at or near any house or place in such numbers or in such manner as is by this subsection declared to be unlawful shall be deemed to be a watching or besetting of that house or place within the meaning of section seven of the Conspiracy, and Pro tection of Property Act, 1875. (2) In this section the expression `to intimidate' means to cause in the mind of a person a reasonable apprehension of injury to him or to any member of his family or to any of his dependents or of violence or damage to any person or property, and the expression `injury' includes injury to a per son in respect of his business, occupation, employment or other source of income, and includes any actionable wrong. (3) In section seven of the Conspiracy, and Protection of Property Act, 1875, the expression `intimidate' shall be construed as having the same meaning as in this section. (4) Notwithstanding anything in any Act, it shall not be lawful for one or more persons, for the purpose of inducing any person to work or to abstain from work ing, to watch or beset a house or place where a person resides or the approach to such a house or place, and any person who acts in contravention of this subsection shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 20 pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months." It was further provided by s. 6: "(4) There shall be added to section five of the Con spiracy, and Protection of Property Act, 1875, the following pro vision, that is to say : `If any person employed by a local or other public authority wilfully breaks a contract of service with that authority, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the probable conse quence of his so doing, either alone or in combination with others, will be to cause injury or danger or grave inconvenience to the community, he shall be liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding ten pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months.' " A combination of two or more persons, even where not expressly provided for, would be punishable as a conspiracy, as provided in s. 3 of the act of 1875. (X.) The American law of conspiracy is rooted firmly in the English common law, the influence of which is plainly discernible in most American decisions. In the United States the most important field to which the law of conspiracy has been applied is that of com binations in restraint of trade, whether these combinations are of labour with a view to securing concessions by employers or of industrial enterprises with a view to price fixing through control of production.
The Sherman Act.—In this connection a large body of law centres around the Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890 and the Clay ton Anti-trust Act of 1914. The first section of the Sherman Law makes every "conspiracy in restraint of trade and commerce among the states or with foreign nations illegal." Again in the third sec tion it is made an offence "to combine or conspire with any other person or persons to monopolize any part" of such trade or com merce. The decisions interpreting the scope of the word "conspir acy" as used in the Sherman Law are very broad. A mere tacit un derstanding between persons to work to a common purpose will be a conspiracy. The exchange of trade information through organ ized channels with a view to influencing prices through control of production may be a violation. Always a criminal intent, that is, the intent to do something forbidden by the act, must be present, but the result intended is the criterion, and there need be no delib erate intention to violate the act. A series of acts in themselves innocent when taken together may give rise to the charge of con spiracy, when the collective effect is to limit commerce or to restrain trade. Furthermore a person who joins the combination or conspiracy after its inception will be equally guilty with the originators. Corporations, though artificial, may be guilty of con spiracy. Necessarily they act through agents and these agents together with the corporation are responsible.
The Sherman Law, being enacted in pursuance of Federal au thority, is limited to interstate commerce or commerce between the nations. But it has been held that even though various de fendants may be engaged exclusively in intrastate commerce, if they conspire to restrain the trade of other persons who are engaged in interstate commerce they will be guilty under the act.
The Clayton Act undertakes to define with greater precision certain types of conspiracy or combination in restraint of trade which are punishable. One of its principal purposes was to elim inate as a crime under the Sherman Law combinations among labourers for the purpose of achieving legitimate trade-union pur poses. To that end certain trade-union practices were specifically permitted. In some instances, however, these practices were lawful at common law and therefore also under the Sherman Law. Thus the Clayton Act to a considerable degree is simply a legislative pronouncement of what was already the law. (R. P. B.)