The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-11-03
FIGHT To THE FINISH.
Druggists Association to De-
fend Themselves in Court.
Organization Has Retained A.
E. Clark as Attorney.
J.. C Thro Said to Be a Member
of the Society.
The Complaint Charges Him to
Be a Price Cutter.


From Tuesdays Daily.
The Blue Earth County Retail Drug
ri>t, association has retained \. +.
Clark TO defend it in the injunction pro-
ceedingS brought against some of it,
member, by John c. Thro. and an an
swer will be put in. 1t is understood
that the claim will be made that Mr..
Thro j. himself Il member of the asso-
citation. and has been since it started,
and that he has been fairly active in
reporting other druggists who in the
past have made cuts in the price OF
proprietary medicines. Various other al
legations and denials will also be made.
J. f. Sedle is president of the Blue
Earth County Retail Druggists associa
tion. and J. W. DoXey is the secretary.
All but two of the druggists in Man
kato belong TO the association, these
two being Nelson Weed, who never
Joined. and A. G.. Lack & Co., who
withdrew his membership in a commu
nication to Secretary DoXey dated Sat
urday. Neither of these druggists met
with the others or took any part in the
proceedings to report Mr.. Thro to the
of the United States.
In the Injunction suit brought by Mr..
Thro the defendants are j. f, Seidle,
Julius Doxey, +. c. Thomas, f. l..
Lamm and p. Follman, both as indi-
viduals and as members of the Blue
Earth County Retail Druggists associa
ton. The court is asked TO restrain
them from reporting or furnishing proof
to the National Association of Retail
Druggists of the United States that the
plaintiff is an aggressive cutter of prices
and from taking any steps to regulate
the price at which the plaintiff shall
sell his drugs, medicines and merchan-
disc, and from taking any steps to pre-
vent the plaintiff from buying the same
from any wholesale druggist he desires
TO.
The complaint alleges that the Ma
tional Association of Retail Druggists
of the United States has an agreement
with all of the Wholesale druggists in
the United States, whereby if any
druggist is reported to them by the as
ISOLATION they shall refuse to sell any
goods to the offender. This will pre-
vent his doing business.
The complaint further alleges that the
defendants unlawfully combined, con-
spired and confederated together on Oct.
9th and reported the plaintiff to the
headquarters at Chicago of the Nation
al Association of Retail Druggists of tn,
United States. and that further proof
of the offense being required, they were
about to forward the same. and the
court was therefore asked to prevent
them from doing so.
Up to the present time Mr.. Thro has
had no difficulty in getting goods, but
he Is convinced that as soon as he is
reported with the necessary proof that
he has cut the prices of proprietary
medicines he will be blacklisted with
the national association, which will in
turn notify the wholesalers not to sell
him any goods.
Nelson Weed was reported once and
WAS blacklisted, but was able to secure
goods from other dealers. His matter
was finally adjusted He is of the opin-
ion that ii druggist knew how TO do it,
he could get goods, even if on the black
list
The trouble in Alankato seems to
have started from the advent of the new
medicine, "Cas-ka which has been ex-
tensiyely advertised and sells for less
than many of the proprietary medi-
zines. Mr.. Thro followed last week with
ii cut in the price of certain proprietary
medicines. and advertised the fact in
the papers. Then the other druggists
named in the complaint got busy and
held meetings. Neither Mr.. Lack nor
Mr.. Weed attended the last meeting,
aud therefore they were not named as
defendants.