But as the Danbury concern was determined to fight the union, in
1902 a nationwide boycott was declared. The company then brought
suit against members of the union in the United States District
Court. Injunction proceedings reached the Supreme Court of the
United States on a demurrer, and in February, 1908, the court
declared that the Sherman Anti-Trust Law forbade interstate
boycotts. The case then returned to the original court for trial.
Testimony was taken in many States, and after a trial lasting
twelve weeks the jury assessed the damages to the plaintiff at
$74,000. On account of error, the case was remanded for re-trial
in 1911. At the second trial the jury gave the plaintiff a
verdict for $80,000, the full amount asked. According to the law,
this amount was trebled, leaving the judgment, with costs added,
at $252,000. The Supreme Court having sustained the verdict, the
puzzling question of how to collect it arose. As such funds as
the union had were invulnerable to process, the savings bank
accounts of the individual defendants were attached. The union
insisted that the defendants were not taxable for accrued
interest, and the United States Supreme Court, now appealed to
for a third time, sustained the plaintiff's contention. In this
manner $60,000 were obtained. Foreclosure proceedings were then
begun against one hundred and forty homes belonging to union men
in the towns of Danbury, Norwalk, and Bethel. The union boasted
that this sale would prove only an incubus to the purchasers, for
no one would dare occupy the houses sold under such
circumstances.
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