Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-06-04
Suitby Uncle Sam Against
The Standard Oil
Has Been in Various Courts
Since Nov. IS, 1906.
4 Resume Of the Proceedings Up
To Final Arguments.

St Louis, June 3.,-The governments
dissolution suit against the Standard
Oil Co of New Jersey. seven of Its OF
ficers and 20 subsidiary concerns. has
been in the courts since Nov. u. 1906,
when the complaint was filed in the
circuit court of the United States for
the eastern. division of the eastern jul
dicial district of Missouri at ST. Louis.
1t has been heard by the four judges
of the eighth judicial circuit who have
sat en- banc as the United States circuit
court OF appeals, thus allowing d.
rect appeal from this decision to the
supreme court of the United States.
This was the circuit in which the
Northern Securities case was heard.
and 1t was selected for the Standard
Oil case because of it's location. and
because many of the governments wit
nesses We're residents Of adjoining
states.
The governments allegations. which
were filed by David P. Dyer. then
United States district attorney, We're
based largely upon an investigation of
the oil business conducted by James r.
Garfield. commissioner of the bureau of
corporations, at the behest of President
Roosevelt This investigation consum-
ed a year. and because of it, various
grand juries returned indictments con-
tanning S193 counts. according to Com
missioner Garfield's annual report of
Dec. 3, 1906.
In petitioning for the dissolution of
the New Jersey corporation and its
subsidiaries. the government complain
ed that the defendants had cOnspired
"to restrain the trade and commerce in
petroleum, commonly called crude
OIL in refined oil and in other prod
uctS of petroleum among the several
states and territories of the United
States and the District of Columbia,
and with foreign nations, and to mo-
nopolize the said commerce.
John D. Rockefeller. William Rock
efeller and Henry M. Flagler were
named as the originators of the alleg
ed conspiracy. The bill claimed that
between 1870 and 1882 Henry H. Rogers,
John D. Archbold. Oliver H. Payne
and Charles NJ. Pratt joined the con-
spiracy which eliminated with the or
SANITATION of the New Jersey corpora
ton in 1899.
Three periods of development are al
legged in the complaint. The first. that
preceding 1852, was marked. it is as
serted. by the activities of the individ
ual defendants in connection with the
Standard Oil Co. of Ohio in acquiring
interests in. OF entering agreements
with various competing firms. corpor
atoms and individuals engaged in the
oil business.
SrD, To ha Ia int
cited, the affairs of the various con-
Germs and individuals We're under the
mana cement of nine trustees by a
trust agreement" already to be Gin
restraint of trade and commerce and
in violation of law
Since 1899, it was alleged. the defend
ants have acted Through the Standard
Oil co. of New Jersey as holding
corporation. which company acquired
the majority of stock in various corpor-
atoms and managed them in violation
of law
it was charged also that in their al
legged efforts to monopoliZe the oil
business. the defendants had solicited
and received rebates on shipment not
only of their own products but also on
those of competitors and later ac-
quired control Of various pipe lines
which wore merged into the National
Transit Co.
From the inception of the case Frank
+. Kellogg, St. Paul. and Charles B.
Morrison, Chicago. have appeared on
benalf OF the government as special as
sistants TO the attorney general of the
United States. John c. Milburn. New
York: MOrtZ FOsenthal. Chicago. and
John q. johnson. Philadelphia have
headed the defendants long list of at
torneys.
The judges who have considered the
case are: Walter H. Sanborn. St Paul: