Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1909-12-16
TRIUMPH FOR LAW
EFFECTS OF
STANDARD OIL DECISION.
Will Prove to the People That the Re-
publican Party Is Their Friend
Against Trusts That
Cypress Them.

The decision of the United States
circuit court of the Eighth federal cir
cult that the Standard Oil Company Of
New Jersey is a combination in re-
straint of trade and must be dissolved
will, if sustained by the supreme court,
have a far-reaching effect on the oper-
atng methods employed by great in
dustrial and commercial combinations.
When told of the decision Attorney
General Wickersham said that it was
"one of the most important ever ren.
dered in this country" Certainly if
the framework of corporations within
corporations, all responsive to one
central direction, yet each by virtue
of its nominal individuality relieving
that central authority of direct and
confessed responsibility, which legal
talent has built up for the Standard
Oil interests is based on a misinter-
pretation OF the law against combina-
tions in restraint of trade, then the
conceptions which large part of the
business world has entertained of
what constitutes illegal interference
with competition must be abandoned
or materially altered. The Standard
Oil Company has been the pioneer in
constructing devices to control trade
without being technically chargeable
with sufficient control to constitute a
monopoly. If its lawyers have failed
to make the construction statute
nrNnf II iG Iilya1Iy that tho mi
tators of the Standard Oil people have
been any more successful in hedging
themselves about with legal immunity.
When the Standard Oil Company
was fined 29,O0O,OOO for collecting re-
bates the issue was one of facts. The
fine was held to be excessive and un.
warranted by the higher courts be-
cause the liability for accepting re
bates was not sufficiently established.
That proceeding sought to punish
only specific offense charged against
the Standard Oil Company of Indiana
and indirectly against the parent New
New Jersey company. But the suit
just decided in the Eighth circuit at.
tackS the vital principles of organiza-
tion applied in the creation of the
parent company and the legality of
the methods by which it has tried to
partition responsibility while concen-
trating power. The circuit court holds
that the entire method of operation
is vicious and contrary to law, and
that the s-withinwheels system
must be simpllfied until it no longer
exercises sitting effect on compete
ton. The full text of the decision will
be needed to show how far the simpli.
fication must be carried. Yet the alb.
stract issued indicates that much of
the present machinery must be cast
away
The supreme court took advanced
ground against holding companies in
the Northern Securities decision. II
it decides again that a holding com.
pany like the Standard Oil Company
of New Jersey is in itself menace
to the freedom of competition there
will have to be a new departure in
the conduct of many vast enterprises
engaged in interstate or foreign com
merce. That prospect gives the
unanimous action of the four circuit
judges of the Eighth circuit an unus
ual economical and political signifi
canoe