The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-05-29
FIGHT IS RESUMED
Chamber Of Commerce Again Takes
Up Quotation Contest With
Coe Commission Co.
Complaint in a Suit Just Begun Says
Leak Has Been Dis
covered.

The fight Of the Minneapolis Chamber Of
Commerce against the 'Coe Commission
company and the independently Grain &
Stock Exchange for the alleged illegal use.
of Chamber of Commerce quotations has
been resumed This time the Chamber of
Commerce claims it has discovered the
'leak" by which the defendant organiza-5
tions have obtained its quotations and is
prepared to trace them from the office OF
one of it's members to the office of mem
Der of the Independent Exchange.
The Chamber of Commerce, therefore,
asks the courts for a temporary order
forbidding the Coe Commission company
and the Minneapolis Independent Grain
and Stock Exchange from using or dis
seminating Chamber of Commerce quo
tations and from Committing unfair bust
ness competition and piracy" and, fur
ther, for a Judgment permanently enjoin-
ing the defendants from such use of cham
Der quotations and unfair business COM
petition" Raa
are being servedto-day. The complaint
sets up the claim that, tho the quota
lions used by the Coe Commission COM
pany and the Independent exchanges are
not always the same as those Of the
Chamber of Commerce, they are based
| upon those of the chamber and bear such
a relation to them as to injure the plain.
| tiff's business.
Affidavits submitted to show how,
| in the branch offices Of the Coe Commits
sion company in various towns of the
state, have been posted side by side quota
| lions from the Chamber of Commerce and
the Independent Exchange, the prices be-
| ing identical in some cases or the lnde-
pendent Exchange prices ranging about
one eighth OF cent under those OF the
| chamber.
In view of the fact that the chamber
has made long continued and strenuous
efforts to discover how the Coe, Commits
sion company obtained Chamber Of Com
MERGE quotations, the statement in the
complaint that the leak has been dis
covered, is interesting. The method by
which the Coe, Commission company, and
thru it the Independent Exchange, Is said
to have obtained Chamber of Commer
quotations, is told at length In an afflda-
Wit by w. W. Scott.
March II of this year, Mr.. Scott says,
| while visiting the office of Erving j.
| Kneen, one of the defendants in the pres
| ent case. on the ground floor of the Guar
anty building, he discovered that an elder
! ly gentleman, named John Larkin, also
| named as a defendant passed about once
| in fifteen minutes from the office of Corse
& Thomas on the same floor Of the same
building to and from the office OF Kneen
| & Co. He learned that Corse & Thomas
were members of the Chamber of Com
| merce and We're obta lining tn continuous
| quotations of tn Chambr. b
| Mr.. Scott says he saw Mr. Larkin enter
1.-THE office of Corse & Thomas, take dowr
1.-THE quotations of the chamber, then cote
the office of Kneen & Co. and sit down al
/ a private telephone. He could hear enough
of what Larkin said to know that he was
ftelephoning the quotations he had OBJ
tanned in the office of Corse & Thomas.
! March 10, or two days later, Mr.. Scott
invited Mr.. Kneen according to Mr.
SCOTS affidavit to have a drink with him
lin the buffet of the Guaranty building.
Mr.. Tyler turned the conversation to the
<.old man., meaning Larlin, whereuPon
lKneen told Scott that the "old man" was
running the quotations of the old board
land the chamber meaning the board OF
trade of Chicago and the chamber OF
commerce of. Minneapolis SO that they
| meaning Minneapolis Independent Grain
and Stock Exchange, and the Coe Com
1 mission company and al 1.-The bucket shops
in Minneapolis would keep in the limit
of one-eighth of cent
! The reason which Mr.. Scott says wa!
assigned for keeping within this limit wa
that the bucket shops would thus getEth'
business and that they did not want to b
caught three eighths Of a cent away
The motion for a temporary restrainin;
order will be heard Saturday, June g., a
10 a. M, at a. special term of the distric
court.