The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-14
A BROAD ISSUE SETTLED
Corporations Have Only Such
Powers as Are Expressly
Granted.
THE PULLMAN CASE AFFECTED
1t Is Believed the Separate Prop
critics VIII Revert to Original
Owners.

SPRINGFIELD, ILL, June 13.-The SUI
preme Court of Illinois to-day filed its
opinion in the case of the people versus
the Distiliing and Cattle Feeding Com
pany.
The Judgment of custer entered by the
lower court is affirmed.
The effect of this decision will be to
break up the whisky trust.
Attorney Levy Mayer, representing the
reorganization committee, says the de-
cision viii hasten the accom- lishment OF
the committees object.
Acknowledgement Moloney in discussing
the decision of the Supreme Court in the
whisky trust case said:
at is plain also from the language used
by the Supreme Court in this case that the
Pullman Palace Car Company will meet
with the same fate at the hands of the Su-
preme Court that the whisky trust has met
with. The Supreme Court has expressly
decided that corporations organized under
the laws of this State have only such ex-
press powers as are granted to them and
that their powers must be strictly con-
strued, and all that is not given to them in
express language is denied.
THE words of the Supreme Court are
1t should be remembered that grants of
powers in corporate charters are to be con-
strued strictly, and that what is not clearly
given is by implication denied. The de-
PENDANT is authorized to own such property
as is necessary to carry on its distillery
and no more. Its power to acquire and
hold property is limited to that purpose. ,"
In the course of the opinion the court
says:
No one who intelligently considers the
scheme of this trust, as detailed in the infor-
nation, can for moment doubt that it was
designed to be and was in fact q ombinarion
in restraint of trade, and that it was organized
for the purpose OF getting control of the manu-
facture and sale of all distillery products so az
TO stife competition and 10 be able to dictate
the amount manufactured and the prices at
which the same should be solo, and that its
effect is to create or tend to create virtual
monopoly in manufacture and sale of the
products of that character.
No rational purpose for such an organization
can be shown consistent with an intention to
allow the business to run in its normal chan
nels, to give competition its legitimate opera
ton, and to allow both production and prices
to be controlled by the natural influence of
supply and demand, and the results as shown
by the information were such as might be an
ticipated. The trust obtained possession of
nearly all the distilleries and nearly the entire
distillery products of the United States, thus
enabling it to dictate prices and the amount of
production and to draw to itself substantially
the control of the distillery business of the
country.
The court cites large number of deci-
sions showing combinations of similar
character that have been hello illegal in
other States, among others the match
trust. The opinion continues:
But it is urged that the defendant by its
charter is authorized to purchase and own dis
tillery property, but that there is no limi
placed upon the amount of property which it
may thus acquire. By its certificate of organ
ization it is authorized to engage in a general
distiilery business in Illinois and elsewhere
and own property necessary for that purpose.
In acquiring distillery properties in the man.
ner and for the purpose shown in the informa-
ton, the defendant has not only misused and
abused the powers granted by its charter but
has usurped and exercised powers not implied
by it and which are wholly foreign to that
instrument,