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===Clearfield County Conspiracy Trials=== No case tried in the county has caused as much comment as the union conspiracy trials. In all there were fifty-six persons, primarily miners in the [[Houtzdale, Pennsylvania|Houtzdale region]], who were charged with conspiracy as organized strikers. The first case, against John Maloney and fifty-three others, was tried in 1875, before a jury with Judge Orvis presiding. All were found guilty, although they seem to have been solely peacefully picketing.<ref>Witte, Edwin E., Early American Labor Cases, 35 Yale Law Journal 7, 1926, pp. 830</ref> Four were sentenced to one year's imprisonment and eight, to six months; the others' sentences were suspended. As every organized labor society in the United States was interested in the result, the events of the trial and verdict were telegraphed throughout the country<ref>Aldrich, Lewis Cass (ed.), History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Mason:Syracuse, 1887, p.81</ref> This proceeding was followed by the trial of the remaining two offenders, who were union representatives, [[John Siney]] and Xingo Parks. Siney was then the President of the [[Miners' National Association]] (MNA); he had come to Houtzdale and delivered an address of support for the union strike, for which he was arrested. Parks was an able organizer for the MNA. Federal Senator [[Matthew H. Carpenter]] of Wisconsin defended both men. At trial, Siney was acquitted; Parks was found guilty of inciting unlawful assembly and sentenced to one year's imprisonment, but pardoned within a month from the time sentence was pronounced.<ref>Aldrich, Clearfield County, 1887, p. 81</ref> These cases led in the next year to a liberalization of the Pennsylvania conspiracy law, through amendment providing that only "force, threat, or menace of harm to person or property" would be illegal.<ref>Witte, Labor Cases, p. 831</ref>
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