The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-16
SYNOPSIS or THE PETITION.
Pleas UpOn which the Government Bases
Demand for OH Trusts Dissolution.

Pleas lpOn which the Government Bases
Demand for OIL Trusts Dissolution.
ST. LOUIS, Nov. 15.-The Government s
petition in equity against the Standard Oil
Company of New Jersey, its seventy con-
stituent corporations and seven individuals
was fled here to-day in the Federal Court,
Eighth Judicial Circuit.
THE PETITION.
The following synopsis of the petition was
given out for publication by the Govern
ment;
II is alleged in the petition that John d.
Rockefeller and bis associates, the other
individual defendants, formed a conspiracy
to monopolize the commerce in petroleum
and its products at a very early date about
the year 1S7U-and that the same indiNid-
uals have controlled the combination dur
ing all these years, in all its forms, and
now control it.
The form which such combination and
conspiracy has assumed and the devices
employed have from time to time
heen subject to change as the individual
defendants considered it most Effective for
carrying ont their purposes. The petition,
therefore, is logically divided into three
periods. During the first, from 1870 to
1882, the combination assumed the
form of a simple conspiracy - that is
TO say, the defendants, with the and
ara Oil Company Of Ohio, which they
organized, purchased and obtained interests
inaby stock ownership and otherwise and
entered into agreements with various FER
sons, firms, corporations and limited part
nerships engaged in the same business,
whereby they acted together to suppress
competition aud control the oil business.
During the second period, TO wit, from
1882 20 1899, the conspiracy assumed the
form OF a trust agreement, whereby about
forty separate corporations engaged in
the same business. turned over the man.
agenIent Of their business to nine trustees,
81 which these individual defendants were
the majority, so tina there defendants con-
troIled all Of these corporations and there
by eliminated competition.
Such trust agreement having been de-
clared illegal by the Supreme Court of
Ohio in 1902, the trustees passed a resolu-
ton dissolving the trust, but neverthe-
less continued TO manage all OF the said cor
porations in the same manner until 1899 +,
at which time, being compelled TO abandon
the trust agreement, they placed all OF the
stocks Of these corporations and limited
partnerships, which had been previously
controlled by the trustees, into the Standard
Oil Company OF New Jersey as a holding
Since 1899 the Standard Oil Company
Of New Jersey has controlled all the
various corporations, purchased the stocks
OF other corporations and organized new
corporations, until 1t now has about seventy
corporations.
I'M W. " W W. AiilNt lIt DtIHlOn
states the leading facts Of these separate
periods, which may he briefly summarized
as follows:
FIRST PERIOD, lS7O-iSS2.
Th petition alleges that in the first
period, from 1870 to 1852, the individual
defendants, through the Standard Oil
Company Of Ohio, obtained control of
forty-seven refneries in New York, Penn
aylvania and Ohio and entered into a con-
spiracy to limit production and suppress
competition.
One of the principal means. by which
this conspiracy was carried Ous was relates
ON Standard Oil shipments. Agreements
with railroads are attached TO the p%etition
showing rebates of ST. cents out ofa rate of
n.4O per barrel. and CO. cents out of a rate
Of Si.A.
The petition then describes a suit nuainst
the heads OF the Standard OH Company
and Pennsylvania Railroad officials, bought
IN Pennsylvania, alleging conspiracy 10
monopolize the oil industry, which case
was settled by the railroad promising 20
discontinue rebating and TO publish ali oil
tariffs. The petition alleges that through
these rebates the Standard was able 10
control % per cent. OF The oil industry.
PERIOD oF TRUST AGREEMENT, 1882 1899.
IL h alleged In the petition that the de-