The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-02-19
BEEF TRUST CASE DECISION
THE TEXT OF JUDGE GROSSCUI"S
FINDING.
Demurrer of the Packers 0VerruIod and
Temporary Injunction GTanted-In-
tentions OT Defemdants' Attorneys Not
Announcsd-Am appeal May bs TAX en
Statute Has No Concern with Prices
but With Competition
but with Competition


but with Competition
Chicago, Feb. 1S.-The so-called beef
trust" case was disposed of to-day by
Judge Grosscup in the United States
circuit court, the demurrer of the pack
ers being overruled and a temporary in
junction granted. The attorneys for
the packers made no announcement of
their intentions. They have until March
4 to discuss the matter with their prin-
cipals. If they deny the facts upon
which Judge Grosscup based his de-
cision, the matter will go before mas
ter in chancery, who will hear the evil
dence and the case will again be ar
gued before Judge Grosscup. An appeal
may be taken. 1t is not believed likely
that the packers will let the matter go
by default. thus making the injunction
permanent.
Commerce" said Judge Grosscup in
his decision, lis the same or exchange
Of commodities. That which the law
looks upon as the body of commerce is
not restricted to specific acts of sale or
exchange. It includes the intercourse,
all the intiatory and intervening acts,
instrumentalities and dealings, which
directly bring about the sale or ex-
change. Thus, though the sale or ex-
change is a commercial act, so, also. is
the solicitation or drummer, whose oc-
cupation it is to bring about the sale or
exchange. The whole transaction, from
initiation to elimination, is commerce.
when commerce, thus broadly defin-
ed is between parties dealing from diff
ferent states, to be effected so far as the
immediate act of exchange goes, by
transportation from state to state, it is
commerce between the states within
the meaning of the constitution and the
statute known as the Sherman act.
But it is not the transportation that
makes the transaction interstate COM
merce. That is an adjunct only, essen
tial to commerce, but not the test. The
underlying test is that the transaction,
as an entirety, including each part cal
culated to bring about the result, reach
ed into two or more states; and that the
parties dealing with reference thereto,
deal from different states. An inter-
state commercial, transaction is, in this
sense, an affair arising from different
states and centering in the act of ex-
change, each essential part of the affair
being as much commerce as is the CEN
ter. With this definition in mind, let
us see what the transaction made out in
the petition is.
For the purpose of clear exposition,
the facts set forth in the petition should
be separated into two groups: Those
that are intended to bring the transac-
ton within the body of interstate COM
merce and those that are intended to fix
upon such transaction the character of
unlawful combination and conspiracy.
The first group may be stated as fol-
lows: The defendants, controlling
60 per cent. of the trade and commerce
in fresh meats in the United States buy
in the course of their business, live
stock, shipped from points throughout
the United States, which having been
converted into fresh meat, is sold again
by them at the places where prepared,
to dealers and consumers in other
states, or is sold through their agents,
located in other states, to dealers and
consumers in the states where the
agents are located. The shipments in
the first class of sales are made direct
ly from the places where the meat is
prepared, to the dealers and consumers
in other states and In the latter class to
the agents in the other states, who. up
on sale, deliver directly to the dealer
and consumer.
What may be ca" / the body of
these transactions S two-fold. 1t
reaches backward to the purchaser Of
cattle that come to defendants from
states other than those in which de-
Continued on Third Page.)