The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-10-23
THE RUS DECISION IN ILLINOIS.

The decision of the Supreme Court of ILL
many who have considered it to have an
important bearing upon the future OF large
combinations of capital called trusts. Sew
eral years ago a combination was formed
to buy up and control the glucose mills in
the country. The arrangement was made
with the managers and majority of the
stockholders in all the leading plants, and
without consulting the minority sharehold-
ers. The party bringing the suit against
the combination was a minority stakeholder
In the Peoria plant. He or his father owned
100000 worth of stock in the company, for
which he paid cash at par value and for
years received ) percent. dividends. With
out any notice of the transaction this minor
ity shareholder was notified that the fac
tory had been sold TO a trust and that his
share Of the price for which IL was sold
bank That is, the trust that proposed to
control all the factories also proposed to
rob this shareholder of $4,000 of the $780,
900 invested. The stakeholder brought suit
for relief. and evidence was presented to
show that the combination was a trust and
that fraud had been committed. To the
charge that the American Glucose Company
is a trust the company declined to present
its books. withdrawing the demurrer that
the combination is not a trust. The gen.
eral opinion seems to be that the decision
of the court renders 1t impossible for large
combinations of manufacturing enterprises
to be created by freezing out a minority
of the shareholders in the respective COM
panies of which it is proposed to form a
combination.
1t appears that the whisky trust in ILL.,
plants into d combination, some of which
were closed with a view of controlling the
output and the price. The Supreme Court
broke up this combination on the ground
that al agreement to curtail the output
constituted a trust within the meaning of
the laws of Illinois. The legal firm in Chi
cage which has been d~evoting it's attention
to the making of combinations of capital
devised a new plan, which seems to be for
a company to purchase the desired plants
outright and then operate them. Under
such an arrangement any agreement about
closing some plants and limiting the out
put of others is unnecessary for the reason
| that a new company controls and can make
any arrangements 1t deems for its interest.
Under this new scheme the glucose plants
were put into one company, the initiative
of which appears to have been a conspiracy
to swindle the helpless minority sharehold-
ers. 1t appears in the decision that it is
not necessary to prove a combination to
curtail production and put up prices in or
der to establish the fact of a trust, but
tina the fact that the combination did both
these things after it got control of the prop
erty is sufficient to render the combination
liable to prosecution.
The impression of most Of the lawyers In
Chicago who nave been questioned is that
| the decision of the Supreme Court means
the death of all combinations of capital in
manufacturing enterprise which have been
| made to control production and fix prices
If other States have similar avs the dis
| position of trusts may not be so difficult a
matter as the public has been led to expect