The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-21
STOCK MEN SURPRISED.
Their Association at Kansas City
Declared Illegal.


TOPEKA. Kan, Sept. 2O.-United
States District Judge Foster made a
sweeping decision this morning, when
he declared the organization known as
as the Kansas City Live Stock associ-
alton Illegal under the provisions OF
the antitrust law. The exchange is
an organization of commission men,
who control the sale of live stock in
Kansas City. All stock which enters
the city must pass through the hands
of this organization. Judge Foster en-
joins the commission fcom doing bust
ness and declares it an unlawful COM,
bination.
The case was that brought by the
United States district attorney nearly
a year ago, when Green, Mills * Co.,
a Chicago-Kansas Ciy firm, was driven
from the exchange, The iirn, was sus-
pended for the non-payn'ent of fines
a~ggregating 81, 600, and sued for an in
junction. The association is located on
the Kansas-Missouri line in the i'm
mediate vicinity of the Kansas City
Stockyard company's yards. The deci-
sion declares that the exchange is
clearly a combination whose purpose is
~ ~ CLAANA lAAOAlODOIAHC ItS
buying and selling of live stock at the
Kansas City yards, and continues: THE
methods and aims cf many of these
exchanges and boards of trade are not
altogether beneficial to the business
and of the country. The
crying complaint of today and the
great menace to the welfare Of the
people is the tendency of wealth to
m~onopolize IL control by trusts and
combines the products and industries
of the country, and il must be con-
fessed by every thoughtful observer
that many of the so-caIled stock and
produce exchanges are among the most
potent instrumentalities for the accom-
plishment of these purposes by spec
ulators and adventurers.'
KANSAS CITY, Mo-, Sept. 2O.-The
news of the decision rendered by Unit
ed States Judge Foster, declaring the
Kansas City Live Stock exchange a
violation of the Sherman antitrust
law, caused a great deal of suppressed
excitement at the stock yards here to-
day. Just what effect the decision will
nave ON the methods of business at
the yards in the future is a matter cf
conjecture. Some members of the ex-
change say the dissolution of the ex-
change will be a severe blow to the i've
stock interests, if it stands the test in
the higher courts. They say that the
business, as carried on under the rules
of the exchange, has been redu led to
a scientific basis and guarantees to ev-
cry patron an honest deal.
President TOhp n MoCou eo;I. sslVo
are in the hands of lawyers, and mt
we see them We do not know what ac-
ton will be taken by the han
In fact we do not know the full i'm
port of the decision n are in no DO
sition to say what we can do"
Judge Foster defines the interstate
law, and says: 1T is ~indisputable that
all the live stool shipped to these de-
PENDANTS for sale from states other
than Kansas or Missouri may. after
it has entered the current of COM
merce between the states, continue and
remain subjects of such mme until
the transportation is terminated and
the property becomes a part of the gen
eral property of the state. 1t Is also
well settled that, while this property
is the subject of interstate commerce.
no state, municipality or other power
but congres can impose taxes, re-
strictions or regulations upon it, ex-
cept so far as is proper in the exercise
of police regulations for the protection
of the health, morals and person of the
citizen and except for proper charges
n regulations for the use of local in
struments as aids or incidents to such
commerce., such as docks. brid ees Ella
Vators, ferries, pilotage. ETC."