Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-16
CONTROL OF TRUSTS
Sweeping Character of Recent
Tobacco Decision.
EFFECT ON COMBINATIONS
Tendency to Broad Construction Of
the Sherman Act.
ONLY ONE QUESTION MATERIAL
Courts Must Inquire Only Whether
Competition Is Restricted-Ap-
peal to Highest Tribunal.
EFFECT ON COMBINATIONS
ONLY ONE QUESTION MATERIAL

NEW YORK, November 16--The sweep
ing character Of the recent decision of the
United States circuit court in declaring
the American Tobacco Company to be a
combination in restraint of trade is at
tracing widespread attention in business
circles and among members of the legal
profession who have given special atten-
ton to tho trust question, not SO much
for it's immediate effect on the allied to-
bacco interests, but more particularly for
it's scope and effect upon all classes of
industrial combinations engaged in inter-
state traffic. An appeal of this decision
to the United States Supreme Court is
now in active process OF preparation by
counsel In the case.
There has been a series of judicial in
terpretations of the Sherman act. both in
the federal circuit and in the United
States Supreme Court but the consensus
of opinion is that the recent decision in
the tobacco case gives q definiteneSS and
scope of Interpretation far beyond any
judicial utteranceS heretofore made. The
full text of the decision, now available
covering forty-four large printed pages,
shows the far-reaching nature of this lat
est exposition of the law. 1t also dis
closes. in the language of the judges, the
gradual development of judicial interpre-
\ 'dlIOH VI Tie law up u the pleSetlt Time,
Judge Coke, one of the concurring judges,
stating that since the knight case
Gag ainst the sugar retineries) the tendency
has been constantly toward wider scope
of the statutes
Progress in Construction.
The knight case was the first under
the Sherman act to reach the Supreme
Court. 1t was decided in January, 1895,
and held in substance that the combna-
ton of number of refineries to manu-
facture sugar was not within the act be-
cause manufacture alone is not COM
merce, and therefore not within the con-
troll of Congress. An examination of the
numerous decisions since the Knight case
leads to the conclusion, Judge Coke says,
that there has been general tendency
toward Il broader and more liberal con-
struction of the statutes.
In the Northern Securities case, the
opinion reviews all of the prior decisions
and formulates certain propositions. Some
OF these were as follows:
II he antl-truS; act embraces and de-
clareS to be illegal every contract combi-
nation or conspiracy, in whatever form, o.
whatever nature and whoever may be the
parties to 1t, which directly or necessarily
operates in restraint of intersta, e or in
ternatlonal trade or commerce. The act
is not limited To unreasonable restraints,
but embraces all direct restraints.
Inc natural eHect or competition is to
Increase commerce, and an agreement
whose direct effect is to prevent this play
of competition restraints trade and COM
merce. To vitiate such an agreement or
combinat alton it is not necessary to prove
q to. al suppression of trade: 1t is only
essential to show that by its necessary
operation it tends to restrain interstate
or international trade or commerce or
tends to create a monopoly in such trade
or commerce and to deprive the public
of the advantages that flow from free
competition
In the case of Loewe agt. Lawer, the
United States Supreme Court held the
Sherman act applicable to members of
labor organization, who, by means of
boycott. were endeavoring to destroy the
business Of a manufacturer of hats. The
only distinction between the knight case
and the Loewe-Lawler case is that in one
the acts complained Of rela ed to the man.
ufacture and sale of sugar, and in the
other to the manufacture and sale of hats
Comparing the foregoing trust decisions
with that recently given In the tobacco
case shows the development which has
occurred in the application Of the Sher-
man act, Judge Lacombe, in his majority
opinion, defines the status of the law to-
day as follows:
Scope of Sherman Act.