Berg v. State

1925 OK CR 54, 233 P. 497, 29 Okla. Crim. 112, 1925 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 92
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 17, 1925
DocketNo. A-4809.
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 1925 OK CR 54 (Berg v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Berg v. State, 1925 OK CR 54, 233 P. 497, 29 Okla. Crim. 112, 1925 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 92 (Okla. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

EDWARDS, J.

The information is in two counts, in the first of which plaintiff in error is charged:

“* * * On or about the 27th day of December, in the *114 year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two and anterior to the presentment hereof, then and there willfully, wrongfully, unlawfully and feloniously print, publish, edit, issue and knowingly circulate, sell, distribute and publicly display, books, pamphlets, papers, handbills, posters and documents, the same being written and printed matter containing matter advocating, advising, affirmatively suggesting and teaching crime, criminal syndicalism, sabotage, to wit, Certain membership cards iii words and figures, as follows, to wit, ‘Industrial Workers of the World. Official Membership Book. Issued by authority of the General Executive Board of the I. W. W. The member is entitled to work in any industry of this organization where employment is obtainable when stamps are affixed showing the member to be in good standing. To be in good standing a member must be paid for current month. Preamble: The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things in this life. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the earth, and machinery of production, and adolish the wage system. We find that the centering of the management of industry into fewer and fewer hancls_ makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead^ the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers. These conditions can be changed and the interests of the working class upheld only by an organization formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or all industries if necessary cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one injury to all. Instead of the conservative motto, “a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, “Abolition of the wage system.” It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for the every *115 day struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially, we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.’ ‘Labor is entitled to all it produces’; and certain official stamps, signs and indices of the I. W. W.’s, as follows, to wit: Stamp. Stamp. Stamp. Stamp.”

In the second count the plaintiff in error is charged with being a member of, and an organizer, and voluntarily assembled, in a society teaching the doctrine of criminal syndicalism and sabotage, to wit, Industrial Workers of the World.

The facts as gathered from the record are substantially as follows:

“The plaintiff in error was, by his own evidence, an oil field worker, and was on his way from El Dorado, Ark., to Drumright, Okla. He was arrested in the town of Hailey-ville on the 27th day of December, 1922, which was during the time of a railway strike. It appears that he had ridden into town on a freight train; had been there but a short time, probably not more than an hour or such a matter and was waiting to catch another freight train and ride out when he was stopped on the railroad right of way by four special officers, who had no warrant or search warrant, and was searched, and the papers and documents in question taken from his person. He was turned over to the chief of police at Haileyville and later convicted of vagrancy.”

Upon the trial the jury returned a verdict finding the plaintiff in error guilty upon the first count of said information and not guilty upon the second count. The record was made up in the regular way, and the plaintiff in error presents four assignments of error as follows:

“First. Of the introduction of the evidence secured by the unlawful search and seizure.
. “Second. That the information upon which plaintiff in error was tried is defective.
“Third. That plaintiff in error was not permitted to *116 propound certain questions to the jurors on voir dire examination.
“Fourth. That the statute under which plaintiff in error was convicted attempts to create and define a new kind of treason, and is, therefore, unconstitutional.”

We will notice these assignments of error, first, however, considering No. 4, under which the information is drawn. This is based on sections 1, 2, and 3, chapter 70, of the Session Laws of Oklahoma of 1919; sections 2219, 2220, and 2221 of Compiled Statutes 1921, which reads as follows: -:

“Section 1. Criminal syndicalism is hereby defined to be the doctrine which advocates crime, physical violence, arson, destruction of property, sabotage, or other unlawful acts or methods, as a means of accomplishing or effecting industrial or political ends, or as a means of effecting industrial or political revolution, or for profit.
“Sec. 2. Sabotage is hereby defined to be a malicious, felonious, intentional or unlawful damage, injury to or destruction of real or personal property of any employer or owner by his or her employee or employees, or any employer or employers or by any person or persons at their own instance, or at the instance, request or instigation of such employees, employers, or any other person.
“Sec. 3. Any person who, by word of mouth or writings, advocates, affirmatively suggests or teaches the duty, necessity, propriety or expediency of crime, criminal syndicalism, or sabotage, or who shall advocate, affirmatively suggest or teach the duty, necessity, propriety or expediency of doing any act of violence, the destruction of or damage to any property, the bodily injury to any person or persons, or the commission of any crime or unlawful act as a means of accomplishing or effecting any industrial or political ends, change, or revolution, or for profit; or who prints, publishes, edits, issues, or knowingly circulates, sells, distributes, or publicly displays any books, pamphlets, paper, handbill, poster, document, or written or printed matter in any form whatsoever, containing matter advocating, advising, affirmatively suggesting, or teaching crime, criminal syndicalism, sabotage, the doing of *117

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1925 OK CR 54, 233 P. 497, 29 Okla. Crim. 112, 1925 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 92, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/berg-v-state-oklacrimapp-1925.