The citizen., 1906-06-22
WASHINGTON.
Legislative and Cen
eral Topics from
the Capital.
June 16, 1906.

Once more the Department Of
Justice has stirred up trouble
and this time it is with the Fer
tilizer Trust. 1t has been known
for some time that the depart
ment was on the trail of the
trust. aud that it would probably
land enough evidence to warrant
an Indictment. But the results
so far are rather beyOId the ex-
pectatiouS of even the most san
guine octopus hunters The in
formation has been laid before
the United States Circuit Court
for the middle district of Ten
neSSee and is against the Vir
ginia Company ct al. The others
include % defendant companies
with "a combined capital Of 800,
600, 600. The charges are viola
tion of the Sherman Anti. Trust
Law and for conspiracy. The
penalty for the violation of the
Sherman law is $1,000 and one
year in Jail while the penalty for
conspiracy is as much as $40, 600
and two years in Jail.
No one expects that IA Jail SEN
tence will be involved in either
case 1t is not the fashion to
send trust magnateS TO jail, and
it is probable that the findings,
as in the Sante Fe cases, will be
that the individual officers Of the
companies are not guilty but that
the corporations are the ones that
have committed an otl'ense They
therefore may he fined, hut it
would be rather difficult to put
corporation in jail. SO beyond
the moral effect that the pr0secu-
tlon may have, there is not much
to be expected.
1t seems, according to reports,
that the combine operated in only
eight States, namely North and
South Carolina. Georgia, Florida,
Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama
aud Tennessee. In the eight
States named, it sold about /, 700,
600 tons of fertilizer "A year and
by means of the com bination, it
was enabled to put up the price
from 81 90 to S4.00 a ton more
than il should have been.
An indication of The way the
prosecution in this and other
trust cases works, is that tue
price of fertilizer has dropped in
the suffering districts from 81 to
So ton already. This is a con
fesslOn that the prices charged
were extortiOnate. 1t is the rule
with government prosecutions
that the moral effect they have is
greater than the actual punish
ment inflicted upon the corpora
tiOnS.
The investigation has shown
up a new and neat way for the
corporations to at least tempo
rarily get around the antitrust
law. They have made use of
Canada as clearing house.
While the companies in the com
bine were nominally independent,
they made use of "a corporation
organized under the laws of Can
ada for a sort of holding com
pany to keep matters straight
between the members of the com
bine and to act practically as the
trustees in the old trust idea
first developed by the Standard
Oil Company.
1t looks as though meat legis,
lation were effectually blocked
for the session. There has been
excitement at the capitol all the
last of this week over the letter
that the President sent to Chair
man WadSworth of the Agri-
cultural Committee, criticism G
the proposed House substitute for
the Beveridge Amendment to the
Agricultural Appropriation Bill
The President came out and said
frankly that the substitute was
almost as bad as nothing at all,
that it was inferior to the Bev-
eridge Amendment wherever it
differed from the latter and that
if he signed it at all it would be
with a distinct memorandum of
disapproval along with his sigma
ture.
This caused no end of a row in
the committee. The majority
members decided to stand pat in
their report and let the thing be
fought out between the House
and the Senate. The result of
the whole trouble pro babl Y
will be that no inspection legis.
lation will be passed at this ses-
sion and the next Congress will
be left to deal with it. This is
only what was to be expected.
The majority of the committee
that has been conaidering the
Beveridge Amendment is given
over body and soul to the pack
ing interests and these same in
terests have enough staunch
friends on the floor of the House