The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1906-11-22

49, corporations II q
W. II. MOODY. partnerships and
seven individual defendants. The At
torney General asks that the combina-
ton be declared unlawful and that it
be enjoined from entering any contract
Or combination i'll restraint of trade.
The following statement was pre-
pared and made public by Attorney
General Moody:
I'm June, by direction of the Presi-
dent, Messrs. Kellogg and Morrison
were appointed by me special assistant
attorneys general to act with Assistant
to the Attorney General Purdy TO
make an investigation of the relations
Of the Standard Oil Company of New
Jersey to the business of refining,
transporting, distributing and selling
oil throughout the United States; to
ascertain all the facts, and to report
whether or not in their opinion there
has been a violation of the Sherman
antitrust law by the Standard Oil
Company of New Jersey or the per-
sons or corporations associated with or
managing it. Counsel have completed
that duty and the report of their in
vestigation has received careful con-
sideration by the President and his
Cabinet.
Charges Set Forth by Moody.
"The information available to the de-
partment tends to show:
That the various corporations and lin
tied partnerships under the control, in
the manner hereinafter stated, of the
Standard Oil Company of New jersey
produce, transport and sell about 80 per
cent of the refined oil produced, trans
ported and sold in the United States for
domestic use, and about the same pro-
portion of refined oil exported from the
United States.
That this share of the business has
been procured by a course of action
which, beginning in 1870, HIS continued
under the direction of the same persons,
in the main, down to the present time.
That these persons now surviving are
John d. Rockefeller. William Rocxefel-
Ter, Henry ii. Rogers, Henry NJ. Flasle:,
John ID. Archbold, Oliver ii. Payne and
Charles NJ. Pratt.
That the design throughout or the
persons having control of the enterprise
has been to suppress competition in thc
production, transportation and sale of RI
fined oil, and to obtain, as far as possible
a monopoly therein.
That between 1870 and 1882 The ce-
sign was effected through agreements
made between many persons and corpora
tions engaged in this business.
That in 1882 the result aimed at was
made more certain by vesting in nine
trustees (including five of the abovs-nam-
ed persons) sufficient stock in the thirty
nine corporations concerned to enable rhe
trustees to control their operations in
such way that competition between
them was suppressed.
That this plan was acted upon until it
was declared unlawful by The Supreme
Court of Ohio in an action against the
Standard Oil Company of Ohio, one of
said corporations. in 1892.
That during the seven years following
the same individual defendants, as a ma
jority of the liquidating trustees, were
pretending to liquidate the trust, but as
a matter of fact were managing all OF the
corporations in the same way an3 excr-
cising the same control over them.
That the individual defendants, IN 1899,
increased the stock of the Standard Oil
Company of New Jersey from $4,000 Geo
to $110000,0O0; that said company was
then a producing and selling col pora.ion,
and that they added to its corporate pow
ers the power of purchasing stock in 9TH
er companies and practically all of the
powers exercised by the trustees unde- the
unlawful trust agreement of 1882.
That the Standard Oil Company Of
New Jersey, then taking the place Of the
trustees, acquired all of the stock Of
the corporations heretofore held and con-
trolled by the trustees. paying therefor
by the issue of its own shares in ex-
change that the president of the boari
of trustees became the president of tae
Standard Oil Company of New jersey.
and that the same persons 1.-THE individual
defendants) who had directed the bust
ness of the trust then assumed the direc
ton of the business of the Standard Oil
Company of New Jersey. and ever since
have continued it.
use of the Standard Oil Company of New
Jersey as a holding company was precise
ly the same as the purpose and effect of
the appointment of the trustees hereinbe
fore referred to-namely, to suppress
competition between the corporations and
limited partnerships whose stock was first
held by the trustees and then by the
Standard Oil Company of New Jersey.
That by the foregoing methods, aided
by the establishment of railroad rates for
transportation which Disseminated in fa-
vor of the corporations whose stock was
held by the holding company, that COM
pany has been enabled to obtain, in large
sections of the country, a monopoly of
the sale of refined oil, with the result
that the prices to the consumer within
the territory where the monopoly prevails
are very much higher than within the
territory where competition to some ex-
tent still exists.
1T is believed that these facts, to-
gether with others contained in the re-
port of the special counsel, justify and
require action by the United States in
the courts"
John ID. Rockefeller Indicted.
John ID. Rockefeller, NJ G. Villas,
treasurer of the Standard Oil Com
pany of Ohio; ]. NJ. Robertson. secre-
tary, and III. p. Mcintosh, dirsl.tor
were indicted at Findlay by the grand
jury, before which the recent oil in
quiry was reopened by County Prosecu-
tor David Bench warrants for Rookie
Teller and the others indicted Wore is
sued Immediately and placed in the
hands of Sheriff Groves.
Ice Trust Decision Stands.
The Circuit Court of Toledo, Ohio,
upheld the decision of the Common Pleas
Court in the sentence of the three prin-
cinals conuicted of cnnsniracy in restraint