The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1906-11-22
STANDARD OIL SUIT.
Federal Court Asked to End "Re-
bate-Fostered, Competition
Crushing Conspiracy"

The national administration at
last has attacked the main cira-
del OF Trustland. The castle of
Standard Oil is totterlng ON its
foundation and agents OF the
United States government, arm
ed with the wrecking tools sup
piled by the statutes against con-
spiracy in restraint OF trade, are
prepared to render it a mass of
industrial debris.
Official announcement was
made at the Department of JUS
tice Thursday morning that after
months of investigation and plan
ming the government is ready to
strike the blow whose aim is dis
solution of the Standard Oil
Company of New Jersey. Coinci-
dent with this announcement
petition in equity under the pro-
visions of the Sherman antitrust
act was filed in the eighth judic-
ial circuit at St. Louis against the
parent company, seventy other
corporations and limited partner
ships that are tied to its apron
strings and against the following
Standard Oil kings and princes:
John d. Rockefeller, Henry H.
Rogers, Henry M. Flagler, Oil
yer H. Payne, William RockefeI-
Ter, Charles M. Pratt, John d.
Archbold.
The judicial power of the Unit
ed States is asked by the co-or-
dinate executive branch of the
government in this petition in
equity to declare the combina-
ton between the seventy subsidi-
airy corporations and the New
Jersey holding company unlaw-
full, to prohibit those corpora
tons from paying any dividends
to the Standard Oil Company of
New Jersey and to enjoin them
from restraining trade or COM
merce or monopolizing trade in
the future.
After dissolution of the inani-
mate trust, the government, with
the success of its attack on the
Northern Securities merger fresh
before it, and confident of its
ground as a result of painstaking
investigation, having little doubt
OF the outcome, the question of
criminally prosecuting the flesh
and blood Rockefellers, Rogers,
Flager. Arch5old and the rest
will receive attention.
A postscript to a statement
given out by Attorney General
Moody hints strongly at the
probability of future action that
may mean more than mere loss
of dollars and cents to the trust
magnates and the curtailment of
their power to throttle COMPETE
tior.
Dissolution of the corporate
body-the tearing asunder of the
octopus, trunk and tentacies-
he viewer, is the initial objective.
The successful accomplishment
of the suit in equity will be like
ly to pave the way for the pun
ishment of transgressors who
have made the name of Standard
Oil as odious as the stencil from
the refuse of one of the trusts
refneries.
The arraignment of the Rock
efellers and their partners in
Oil by the Attorney
General of the United States al
leges a systematic reign of moral
that has been in con-
slant operation for thirty-6ve
years. The statemen. issued by
Attorney General Moody recites
the preparation of the case and
gives concise history of the de-
velopment of the octopus through
clever evasions of the law, COM
binations and agreements.
Counts in Moody's Indictment
Of Standard Oil are as follows:
Illegal crushing and unfair
manipulation of the prices of oils.
Organization of bogus "inde-
pendent" companies to cut prices
to customers of real indepen-
dents.
Division of the whole territory
Of the United States into districts
SO that subsidiary companies
within assigned limits have a
monopoly.
Illegal agreements with rail-
roads by which independent oil
companies are compelled to pay
two to six times the Standard
freight rates.
Unlawful agreements with GER
tain independent refners by
which the Standard markets or
purchases all their products,
eliminating competition.
Monopolizing the business of
pipe lines and failing in the duty
Of common carrier.
Establishing a system of rate
discrimination in its favor
through influence with and own
ership of railroads by the individ-
ual defendants.
Using its monopoly of the rail
road market for lubricating oils
as a club to obtain unfair traffic
favors.