Show I C E R DAlENE M t FR ED FROM PRISON PRISONs 1 kT San s an O r tT x I Through 11 1 d d ere d t to today 0 day by the United States circuit t court of appeals appe ls the ten Idaho strikers who wh Ilo were convicted co Vict d of a conspiracy to t ob obstruct obo o 0 a train tram carrying the mails will secure their release relea front from the San Quentin penitentiary The case is is one growing out out of the big strike in in al alo o in in 1899 and the destruction of the mill at Bunker Hill Of t le 0 Sullivan mining company In I their decision Judges J Ju u Gilbert Gi Gilb b rt Ross and Morrow call callo o 0 attention to the fact that the indictment does not charge that 0 4 the conspiracy had for its purpose knowingly to obstruct the mails Continuing the judges sayo say o It is alleged that they willfully wilfully and knowingly delayed 0 and obstructed the movement ment of the train While it i is true that the t e laws make the railways of the United States postal o roads for carrying the mail and a large number of the pas passenger passenger 0 trains are engaged in carrying the tile mail it is nevertheless t tle less le true that many passenger trains do not carry the mail mailo o CHARGE IS CY CYThe o The defendants in this case are not charged with the tIie o overt act of obstructing the passage of the mails but with witha 0 a conspiracy It is the confederation and conspiracy cy to com corn commit commit 2 mit nit an offense against the United States that they are called calledo o upon to answer As charged in the indictment the con conspiracy 0 4 Js 15 declared to have for its purpose to knowingly hinder 2 and delay the movement and of passage a certain railway car carand caro carand o and train which car it is subsequently alleged carried the 0 4 mails of the United States It is ho o offense against the United 2 States Stales to hinder and delay the passage of a railway car and ando o cors it is no offense to conspire or confederate for fort 0 t that purpose Such an offense must be dealt with under the laws law of the state NOT A FEDERAL OFFENSE o The conspiracy as in the charged indictment lacks an essential ingredient to an offense against the United States That the defendants knew that the mails of the o 0 United States were carried upon the train which 0 they conspired to obstruct It may be that they all had such t 4 knowledge or that the facts and circumstances shown in the 4 o 0 evidence were sufficient to charge them with such knowledge but that does not dispense with the necessity of setting forth 4 in the indictment all the elements elem of the wrongful act which o 0 they conspired to commit t The decision quotes from fr n Hawkins as follows 4 In an indictment nothing material shall be taken by 0 t O 0 or r implication 8 Continuing the court says s ys 0 4 The above authority sustains the proposition that an 2 indictment for a conspiracy to commit an an offense against the 0 o United States must charge every element of the offense as g fully as if the indictment was for its perpetration I |