Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1899-12-13
IMPORTANT DECISION.
TRUST IS INVOLVED.
The Opinion Rendered Says it Is q
Vloiatlon of the Constitution.
The Decision of the Court
of Appeals Sustained.

Washington. Dec 9 The United
Stu ca supreme court has banded dowii
an opinion in the Adlystone pipe case
involWng the tonsdtutionality OF the
combination of pipe manufacturers
winch it wss charged wasa trust The
decision is adverse to the trust and re-
aliens the opinion of the court of ap-
peta for the sixth district.
la reviewing the case Judge Pechham,
WHO handed down the opinion said that
1t had been brougnt nnder the antitrust
act of 1880, and that an injunction was
asked to elljoin the six corporations en-
gagged III the manufacture OF water and
gas pipe which composed the oombina-
tion from continuing to do business
nader the agreement by which they had
divided the territory of the United States
among themselves and by which they
had arranged to fix pricos. Under tins
agreement, the members OF the combi
nation provided for auctoning OF the
right to make bids for supplying with
pipe cities not "A allotted territory, the
euccessful bidder to meet no opposition
from any other members Of the trust, or
If any ether bids vera made, none of
them should be higher than that of the
company to which the award had been
made by the combination. In cases
where bids were asked.n the territory
allotted TO members of the combination,
the agreement was that no bids should
be made except under the supervision
of the company in charge of that ter
ritory under the agreement.
The charge was that such combina-
ton was violation OF the clause Of tile
constitution regulating interstate COM
merce
The district court in which the case
was first heard refused to take this view
of it. but it was reversed by The court
OF appeals Of the Sikh circuit, which
neld the combination TO be antagonistic
to tho constitution, ordering thelssu-
ance of the Injunction prayed for This
latter decision was affirmed by the ae-
ton of the supreme court, with modi-
fcation that the decision should be con-
strued az applying tointerstate business
only.
There were two questions before the
court in connection with the case. The
first was whether the constitutional
clanse for the regulation Of interstate
,r,,Ii.1 RI, irdi-riJ,1ola oY,1 tf
corporations, and second, whether, il
the clause snonld be found to 80 apply
the combination il Il regulation Of inter
state commerce.
The conrt held that the constitutions
clause did apply to individuals aud cor
pore tions and that the agreement doei
by its provisions restrict and restrain
commerce between the states. Hence
the agreement was decided to be void a
applying to interstate business and thu
injunction sustained.
The six companies composing thu
combination affected were the Addy
stone Pipe and Seel company of Gin
cinnsti, Dennis Long &; Co of Louis
vile, the Howard Harrison Iron Co, o.
Admission, Ala, the South Pittsburf
Pine Works OF. South Pittsblrg. Tenn
and the Chattanooga Foundry and Pip
works Of Chattanooga Tenn. Thei
agreement provided tnas there shout,
be no competition between the compan
les in SO states in the manufacture AM
sale of cast iron pipe.
The case was brought and FIRST trie'
in the circuit court for the eastern dis
trict OF Tennessee.