The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-11
A VERY radical
ANTITRUST POLICY
The Government Planning
to Bride and Drive
Corporations.
RECEIVERS PLANNED
The Scheme to Be Tested
on the Big Tobacco
Trust.
RECEIVERS PLANNED

Washington, July 10.-A bill in equity
will be flled by the government next
Wednesday in the United States Cir
cult court for the southern district of
New York against the American To-
bacco company, charging that that cor
poration Is a monopoly in restraint Of
trade in violation of the Sherman law.
That this action will be taken causes
no surprise, for it has been known for
some time that the so-called tobacco
trust was under investigation, but the
nature Of the prayers to the court in
this case will mark a startling depar-
ture In antitrust prosecutions, more
radical than anything yet undertaken
| by the Roosevelt administration.
A new policy has been adopted by
the President and the officers of the
department of justice, which aims at
nothing less than the placing of every
monopolistic or lawbreaking trust in
the hands of a receiver, who as the
agent Of the federal court shall carry
on the business of the corporation.
| This proceeding which is the latest Of
the Roosevelt policies relating to Tie
coatsol Of corporations, is to have
trying out in the prosecution of the to-
bacco company, and if the movement
succeeds other edpitalistic cnmbinatians
which may be violating the laws may
| expect to receive similar Treatment.
1t is easily among the possibilities.
Viewed by the officers Of the department
Of justice. that even the gigantic bust
ness Of the Standard OIL company may
eventually be taken from the hands Of
its present officers and directors and
placed In charge Of receiver If the
movement against the tobacco corpora
tion proves successful.
The recelvership plan has been very
thoroughly worked out by the lawyers
Of the department Of Justice, among
whom is Milton P. Purdy, assistant to
| the attorney general, who is believed to
be the originator of this novel method
Of dealing with the trusts An insep-
arabic accompaniment of the plan, at
least in the first trial which is about to
be inaugurated, Is a petition for in
function restraining the alleged tnonop-
lolistic corporation from engaging r
Their in interstate commerce. and the
government prosecutors win petition, as
an alternative that the court appoint
o receiver to carry on the business of
the offending corporation.
| Whatever the federal courts may
think Of this new plan of campaign In
the administration war on corpora
tions, the leading officers of the de-
Ipartments of Justice and commerce re-
gard it with confidence and believe it
to be thoroughly sound In war.
The reeeivership plan owes its origin
in part at least, to the obvious fact
that most Of the suits thus far SUCCESS
fully prosecuted by the government
have had little practical effect The adj
minstration believes, for example. that
the first great suit Instituted BY the
government, namely the one against
the Northern Securities company, had
no tangible result in causing the rail-
roads which formed the merger to be-
come competing lines. Any lawyer in
the department Of justice viii admit,
II he says what he thinks, that the
great combinations Of capital are SO
strictly natural outgrowth OF the
times and are so essentially subject to
the viii Of the men who own the prop
erty that 1t Is impossible for any power
to compel them In all cases to dissolve
themselves into competing companies
and to allow the small producer or car
rler the same advantages that they en-
JOY themselves
The receivership plan Is regarded by
the administration as method Of Civ
ing to the prosecution of trusts a prac-
teal effect. According to this plan the
government virtually says to the cor
operations: you are breaking the law,
but 1t Is difficult for us to make you
carry on your business In such way
as to conform to the law, So we Will
ask the court to appoint a receiver ia
carry on your business for you-in your
own interest and In the interest of the
people"
According to the project for receiver
sfips, the agent Of the court would be
: expected to conduct the business Of the
: corporation in conformity with the
Sherman law and the other more re.
lcently enacted statutes for the regula.
ton of the trusts. The receiver would
In short, be expected in the course Of
8 time to bring about thorough disso-
luton of the trust and possibly to re
store its various units to the condition
In which they existed prior to the com
i bination Sin restraint of trade"