1. Edwin T. McCoy, previously a member of United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America 1648 of Bisbee, Ariz., later worked as an examiner for the U.S. Employment Service in Tucson and Phoenix.
2. James Douglas Elliott (1859-1933) of Sioux Falls, S.D., was a judge for the U.S. District Court of South Dakota from 1911 until at least 1930. He took the Coronado case after Judge Youmans of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas recused himself. For Elliott's statement to the jury, see United Mine Workers of America et al. v. Coronado Coal Co. et al., 258 F. 829 (1919).
3. In April 1914 the Bache-Denman Coal Co., which operated eight coal mining firms in western Arkansas, abrogated the union contracts of two of its subsidiaries--the Prairie Creek Coal Co. and the Mammoth Vein Coal Co. When union miners at another Bache-Denman firm, the Coronado Coal Co., struck in protest, the parent company replaced them with nonunion workers. Union miners rioted at Prairie Creek, shutting down the operation, and in July Bache-Denman went into receivership. In September the receiver sued the United Mine Workers, the union's District 21, twenty-seven locals, and a number of individuals for a total of $740,000 in damages, which would have been tripled under the terms of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
At the first trial of the case, in district court in 1917, the company won a judgment for $600,000 plus legal fees and interest. The circuit court of appeals struck down the interest award (United Mine Workers of America et al. v. Coronado Coal Co. et al., 258 F. 829 [1919]), and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the balance of the judgment, ruling that there was insufficient evidence to prove a conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce. The court remanded the case for a new trial (United Mine Workers of America et al. v. Coronado Coal Co. et al., 259 U.S. 344 [1922]). At the second trial in district court, the judge ruled no new evidence had been adduced and directed a verdict in behalf of the miners. This judgment was upheld in the circuit court of appeals (Finley v. United Mine Workers of America et al., 300 F. 972 [1924]) but was overturned by the Supreme Court with respect to District 21, the local unions, and the individual defendants, and the case was remanded for still another trial (Coronado Coal Co. et al. v. United Mine Workers of America et al., 268 U.S. 295 [1925]). Both a third trial in 1925, and a fourth in 1926, ended in mistrials, and the union and the company finally settled the dispute in 1927, on the eve of a fifth trial, with the union paying the company $27,500.
4. On Jan. 2, 1918, Attorney General Thomas Gregory asked the U.S. Supreme Court to defer argument in seven pending antitrust cases, namely, the suits against the International Harvester Co., the Eastman Kodak Co., the United Shoe Machinery Co., the U.S. Steel Corp., the American Can Co., the Quaker Oats Co., and the Corn Products Refining Co. Solicitor General John Davis noted that "important as the remedy sought in these cases is believed to be, it must give place for the moment to the paramount needs of the hour" (quoted in "Government Defers Anti-Trust Suits," New York Times, Jan. 3, 1918).
5. The contempt proceedings were initiated by attorneys for the Hitchman Coal and Coke Co. The company alleged that continued organizing by the United Mine Workers in violation of the injunction banning such activities left the firm unable to hire workers for two of its mines. The contempt proceedings were terminated in April 1918 when the company's attorneys withdrew the petition.
6. On Jan. 21, 1918, Gregory replied that while the Arizona deportations were certainly illegal, it was not clear that they violated federal law. He added that he expected to make a decision on whether to pursue federal prosecutions in the near future. Regarding SG's criticisms of the judiciary, Gregory remarked that his department had no authority over federal judges (RG 60, General Records of the Department of Justice, National Archives).
Cochise County, Ariz., sheriff Harry Wheeler and twenty-four others were eventually indicted in federal district court for the unlawful deportation of over two hundred Arizona residents, but the charges were dismissed on the grounds that the matter fell under state, not federal, jurisdiction (U.S. v. Wheeler et al., 254 F. 611 [1918]). On appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the district court's ruling (U.S. v. Wheeler et al., 254 U.S. 281 [1920]). Prosecution of the case also failed in state court.