Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-02

tanned by the courts and the combination
has been dissolved. The ice combination
of the District of Columbia is facing Grim
inal trial. Special counsel are investigating
the coal combination, and special counsel
are investigating the Standard Oil com5ina-
ton.
Three of the causes won in the Supreme
Court of the United States have furnished
decisions of the utmost Importance.
In the tobacco trust case Of Haze VS.. Hem
KEEL the Supreme Court denied the claim of
the trust corporations to be exempt under
the Constitution from furnishing testimony
against themselves by the production Of
their books and papers before a federal
grand jury. Thus the protection of secrecy
for corporate wrongdong is beaten down.
In the Northern Securities case the Su-
preme Court held that a wrong accomplish
ed by means of incorporating in accordance
with the express provision of New Jersey
statute was just as much violation of
federal law as if there had been no incor-
poration. Thus the state rights defense of
protection from favOring state statutes is
beaten down.
In the beef trust case the Supreme Court
held that. although the business of manu-
facture was carried within the limits
of single state, yet the purchase of the
raw material in different states and the
sale of the finished product in different
states brought the business within the in
terstate commerce clause of the Consti-
tuition and gave the federal government
the state alone can deal with manufactur-
ing corporations. however widespread their
business. is beaten down.
The obstacles to the enforcement of the
federal antitrust act thus removed are OBJ
stacles which stood in the way of all
proceedings, and they had to be cleared
away before any proceedings Of the same
character against the same classes of cor
porations could be successfully maintained.
They have been removed. not by newspaper
headlines and denunciatiOn. but by skill,
ability and energy of the highest order.
After the Elkins anti-rebate law was
passed by Congress in 1903 it was supposed,
and the interstate commerce commission
reported. that the railroads had substan-
TALLY abandoned giving rebates. Their
good resolutions do not SEEM however, to
have lasted. The struggle for business en-
abled the shippers soon to secure re-
newal of rebates. or. by ingenious devices,
advantages equivalent to rebates.
Thereupon the Department of Justice be-
gan active prosecutions for the enforce
ment of the law. Fifty-three indictments
have been found against hundreds of de-
PENDANTS and covering many hundreds Of
transactions. There have been fourteen
criminal convictions. Fourteen individuals
have been fined to the gross amount of
$66. 125. Nine corporations have been fined
to the amount of 1888 GOO. Thirty-fve in
dictments are ready for trial in their regu-
lar order upon the court calendar.
The original statute provided only for
punishment by fine. Last winter 1t was
amended by providing for punishment by
Imprisonment, and. If the fines imposed
under the original law shall not prove to
have stopped the practice. We shall see
whether fear of the penitentiary under the
amendment will not do so.
Under this statute also it was necessary
to sweep away defenses which stood as
barriers to general prosecution, and in the
New York, New Haven and Hartford rail-
road case decided by the Supreme Court
February 10 of this year, and the Milwau-
kee Refrigerator Transit case, decided in
the seventh circuit on the 31st of May of
this year, the courts have held that the
substance and not the form is to control
in the application of the statue, and that.
however the transaction may be disguised,
an unlawful discrimination can be reached
and punished. The way is therefore cleared
for all other prosecutions
The railroad-rates act, which was the
subject Of such excited discussion during
the last session Of Congress, has already