Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1906-05-18
OUR WASHINGTON
NEWS AND NOTES
TENS OF INTEREST BRIETLi
CHRoNICLED.
Petition Claims Combination Ex-
lists Which is in Direct Violation
of the Sherman Anti Trust Law.

Washington.-Th attorney general
made public a statement announcing
that a petition has been fled in the
circuit court of the United States for
the district of Indiana by the govern
ment asking for injunction against
certain associations, corporations and
individuals comprising what is com
monty known as the "Drug Trust OF
the United States"
In the statement the attorney gen.
eral alleges that the parties defendant
specifically named in the bill have
voluntarily combined to control the
prices at which proprietary medicines
and drugs shall>be sold to the con-
sumer through the retail druggists IN
violation of the Sherman antitrust
law.
The parties to the alleged combina-
tion include the proprietary associa-
ton Of America, the National Whole
sale Druggists Association and the
National Association of Retail Drug
gists. The statement continues:
"The proprietary association Of
America is an unincorporated asso-
citation Of 80 per cent of all the manu-
facturers and proprietors of patent
medicines, drugs and proprietary ar
ticles in the United States.
sfThe National Wholesale Drug
gists' Association is also an unincor-
porated association composed of near
ly all the wholesale druggists in the
United States. These wholesale drug
gists act as the distributing agents
for the manufacturers and proprietors
of patent medicines, chemicals, drugs
and proprietary articles purchasing
.he same direct from the manufacture
ers and supplying the same to the
'etail druggists.
"The National Association of Re-
tail Druggists is also an unincorpo-
dated association composed Of dele
gates from affiliated local associations
of retail druggists located In the va
rious states Of the United States and
it is claimed that this association
through its affiliations has member
ship of about 10000 or nearly all the
retail druggists in the United States
who purchase and sell patent medi-
cines, chemicals, drugs and proprie-
tary Articles to the consumer.
The bill charges in substance that
the associations, their officers, dele
gates and members are all engaged
in common undertaking, to-wit, the
business Of manufacturing, buying
and selling patent medicines and
drugs and proprietary articles through
out the United States; that these as
sociations and the. members thereof
have entered into a conspiracy to ar
bitrarily fix and regulate the price at
which such articles shall be sold to
the consumer and that they es.ab-
lished rules and regulations to enforce
such an unlawful agreement and by
restricting the purchase and sale of
such commodities.
There is but one ultimate object of
the. conspiracy, viz: to fly the price
which shall be observed by all retail
druggists in selling to the consumer
the various commodities manufac-
tured by the several members of the
proprietary associations The plan
by which such object is effected is in
brief as follows:
"No retail druggist can obtain
goods from a wholesale druggist or a
manufacturer Of proprietary medi-
cine unless retail druggist becomes a
member Of the National Association
of Retail Druggists and in order to
become such member he must agree
to observe the established price at
which such proprietary medicines shall
be sold to the consumer.
eff such retail druggist, after be-
coming member Of the association
of retail druggists, cuts prices he is
Immediately placed upon the list Of
what is known as aggressive cutters
and thereafter this, retail druggist is
Unable to obtain from any manufao-
turer who is member of The pro-
prietary association or from any other
wholesale druggist who is a member
of the wholesale druggists association
any of the commodities which may be
manufactured and sold by them or any
Of them.
Henry W. I.oder, of Philadelphia,
recently brought suit in the United
States circuit court for the eastern
district of Pennsylvania under the
Sherman ANTITRUST act against these
three associations and obtained sub
stantial verdict.
"The attorney general having
Tax Rate of Frisco.