Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-15
COAL BAR0NS TRUST.
A Movement Made Against 1t by
Uncle Sans Law officials.
QUARRY OWNERS ALSO IN DANGER.
ChicagO'S Bureau of Justice That Aids the
DOWntrOdden Poor
AGAINST RAPACNUS MONEY LENDERS
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE pIspArcH.l

lTlCb Attorney VI III
common with all other United States Dis
trict Attorneys in the country, received a
COPY of the recent circular of Attorney Cen
eral Miller calling attention TO the pro-
visions of the Sherman antitrust law,
passed bv the last Congress, and suggesting
to him to find out if there were any illegal
combinations in his bailiwick, and, if so,
TO proceed to annihilate them. Mr.. Mil
christ has since held consultations with
numerous business men who claim TO have
been victimized by trusts of various kinds,
and already he has enough testimony, he
saws, to warrant him in proceeding against
the hard coal barons and another less
known, but equally oppressive, comblna-
tion of quarry men, by which local dealers
in stone are squeezed.
To-day Mr. Milchrist announced that he
had come TO the conclusion that ne could
not proceed against incorporated trusts, OF
which the Whisky Trust is the type. He
saws that in his Judgment those trusts which
are organized as corporations, and whose
cornorate organization owns the various es-
Establishments controlled by them, are not
within the purview'of the act of Congress,
and therefore he will not proceed against
them.
GOOD FOR SOME TRUSTS
If Mr.. NTilchrist is right in this opinion 1t
is verv lucky thing for several recently
formed Incorporated trusts, which have been
ouaking in their boots for the last few
weeks The Columbia Patent Company, In
which the barbed wire men organized, is one
of these, and in it a large Plttsburg estab-
Gshment takes prominent part. The
United Glass Company, by which the win
dow glass trade is controlled, is another. If
the District Attorney adheres to his present
determination, none of these people are to
be disturbed.
II follows, as a necessary consequence,
that the act of Congress is scarcely worth
the paper it is printed on, for all that
is necessary to make trust invulnerable is
to organize it in the form of a corporation,
and let the corporation own and
operate all the establishments which
il is sought TO combine. An incor-
porated trust. as experience has shown, is
the most effective in its operation of all
that has been devised. The various inter |
ests in il are more completely under the con-
troll of the managing head than they could |
be under any other arrangement, and con- |
sequently it is more injurious TO the inter |
ests of the consumer than any other style of |
trusts
If Mr.. Mlchrist's statement is correct, |
that trusts, in the form of corporations, are |
exempt from the operation of the act of |
Congress, the effect of that measure must |
prove the very opposite to that which those |
who drafted it intended, as it will force all |
trusts 10 incorporate and so will render l
them even more numerous and troublesome |
than before.
LAWYERS NOT SURPRISED.
Chicago lawyers are not surprised that |
the District Attorney should reach this |
conclusion. For, if he took the ground that |
incorporated trusts were open to attack, it |
would be necessary TO proceed at once to
strike at the longest and boldest of them,
the Whisky Trust, which recently absorbed
the Shufeldt distillerv after so many at
tempts to burn and blow it up.
writer in the current number ofan En-
glish legal magazine gives readable de-
of a society which has been in
operation at Copenhagen, Denmark, for the
past few years, for furnishing advice and
legal service to people who are not able to
pay for it. In that city, as in Chicago, and
perhaps all other American cities, there are
large classes of people so poor as not to be
able TO obtain the services of an attorney, |
and who therefore fall easy victims to
and sharks of various sorts.
The society referred to was organized bv
number Of charitable people, and its staff
was composed of law students and voung
lawyers, who gave their services free,
profiting, perhaps, by the notoriety which
they obtained and the acquaintance which
they formed in doing its work
OPERATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.
Its operations are confined TO the verv poor.
Those also entirely unable to paw for the
services rendered, and ID all cases where it
is subsequently, discovered that the appli-
cant for advice has ability to paw he is
made to pay the society at the usual rates
charged by the practising attorneys The |
society finds plenty of work TO do in the |
collection of wage claims, in the prevention
Of injustice TO the tenant by the landlord,
in restraining the rapacty of the money
lender and in enforcing reparation for
ltfenSes against women.
In Chicago, a similar organization has |
been busily at work for about five wears
past and during that time it has grown in
Importance steadily until now it is looked
upon as one of the institutions of which the |
city has most reason to be proud Unlike |
the Danish society, the Chicago Bureau of
Justice does not limit its work to gratuitous
services, nor does it aim TO serve only those |
who are unable to pay at all. 1t charges
Tor its work, obtaining the money in ad-
vance If the applicant is able to pay it and
invariably collecting a fee out of the pro-
'eeds Of the litigation if there are any, In
'aSes where only advice is given, and in |
ases where harm Is prevented and no money
n property is recovered, no charge is made,
" rather il is left to the honor of the per-
or in whose favor the service is rendered
whether any fee shall be paid or not
COLLECTING WAGE CLAIMS.
The great bulk of its work up to this time ,
las been in the collection of wage claims.
of domestics and laborers in this
,ity seem peculiarly apt to forget their obli-
cations toward their employees and every
week scores of domestics swarm into the
consultation rooms of the bureau, asking
or help. The society has the ex-
'luslve services of two attorneys,
.ach of whom is paid a salary. At
tated Office hours the Junior attorney
listens TO the queries of its clients and mails
note to the debtors, asking immediate
payment of the claim, or an explanation
Why it should not he paid If neither is
made, and the client has no money, the |
bureau begins suit, advancing the court ;
.osts and at the time set for the hearing its
Issistant attorney is at hand, and the case is
ried in all respects, as if the claimant ha0
ecured the services of one of the best law
irms in the city. The Judgment, when OBJ
aimed, is followed up promptly with levy =
N the debtors property, and in the ma
orlty OF instances the money is soon forth !
oming.
A very large class of cases in this CITY
rows out of chattel mortgage loans. made !
N the household furniture or other goods y,
f poor people. Frequently 200 per cent /
,er mouth is exacted by the money lender,
raYau-als of tho ION and