Connecticut western news., 1907-07-11
AFTER TOBACCOTR TRUST
Government Will Ask Injunction Against Monopoly Today.
NOVEL SUIT CONTEMPLATED.
Appointment of Receivers For Various Concerns Comprising Combine Will Be Suggested to the Federal Court. A Hundred Companies Are Involved.

Washington, July 1O.-The United States circuit court for the southern district of New York will be asked to- day to grant an injunction restraining the various corporations composing the tobacco trust from operating com bination in restraint of trade between Inc states.
 Secondary to this, it will be suggest ed to the court that the appointment of receivers for the various concerns would be an effective method of reach ing the men and companies responsible for alleged violations of the Sherman act.
 Milton D. Purdy, the trust busting expert of the department of justice, and James c. McReynolds, special counsel, will appear for the govern ment and file the civil suit. About a hundred companies and individuals will be mentioned in the bill as being component parts of the great tobacco krust.
 Will Suggest Receivers.
 MT. Purdy, assistant to the attorney general, admitted that the government is not prepared to make fight on the appointment of receivers for the cor porations represented in the tobacco trust. The request for receivers will be more in the nature of a suggestion to the court than determined legal step. The same course will be follow ed in proceedings which will soon be instituted against the powder trust.
 There was much discussion among lawyers as to how the government would get standing in court of equity with an application for the ap- pointment of receiver unless it could allege that the corporation Is insolvent or that it's officers are mismanaging it's affairs. The government Is neither a creditor, unable to get its money, nor a stockholder. Therefore it is feared the court will probably ask for enlight- enment as to the precedents for the ap- pointment of receivers.
 An Injunction Would Lie.
 To make the application for an in- junction effective the prohibition must be directed so as to restrain the Impe- AAoA 4oOu>So SphRAhy, IAC DillISu end of the trust; the British-American Tobacco company, which is believed to be the corporation which holds the stock of the American Tobacco con- pany; the American Cigarette compa- ny, the American Stogie company and the United Cigar Stores company, which are the chief parts of the trust.
 An injunction would lie against the Imperial Tobacco company, a British corporation, in so far as it does busi- ness in the United States. A receiver to care for its American business might be appointed, but lawyers have doubts about that. There is no doubt about the efficacy of the injunction against it that would be enforcible against it or any or, all of its agents and employees.
 Judge McReynolds says the investi- gation has clearly shown that the Unit ed Cigar Stores Company is used by the trust to acquire control of the re- tail tobacco business and to cripple oth- CT distributors for the purpose of driv- ing them out, destroying competition and preventing others from entering the field. Its policy is, after buying out a dealer, to take his written agreement not to engage again in the same busi- ness