The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-04-05
Government Files Its Suit Agai, Stand
ard Oil Co., at st. Louis In
Three Large Printed
Briefs.
Up LOSS WILL BE $4,000
ANTI TRUST Law is UP
Combinations and Monopoles
Made Manifest In All nmat
Brief. Saved.

ST. LOUIS. April pointing out
the shocking abuses which
it alleges has been proved by the testl-
mony. the government suit against the
Standard Oil Company was filed today
in the United States circuit court
here. The document Is almost entir-
ely the work of Frank B. Kellogg and
his assistant, j. H. Graves, who for the
past several years have been working
in the building up of the
case so strong that the department OF
justice feels 1t cannot but result in
triumphant victory for tie govern
ment. The oral arguments in the case
will begin Monday. That the potency
of the Sherman antitrust law hangs in
the balance is clearly made manifest in
summing up the facts in the dangerous
monopoly which it Is alleged the
Standard maintains. The govern
ment's brief says:
There is no question If this court
holds the Standard to be legal organ
ization. and innocent OF monopoly in
other words, 1t gives 1t carte blanche
to pursue It's own methodist can
eliminate every competitor within
two years. We do not wish to be UNI
derstood discouraging enterprise. and
taking the position against legitimate
competition. but If the Sherman ACT
means anything to this country II
means monopoly acquired by such
methods of competition as practiced
by this concern"
The government hints at confisca.
ton as to the Standards products. ii
the court is unable to grant the relief
demanded. 1t says, "Other remedies
have tried and have failed. Either the
should be enforced in a manner to
make the people respect it. This testi.
mony is valuable as showing the in.
IGNITION of the Standard to monopolize
throughout the United States. In
many districts it has an absolute mon
opoly, that is in those districts it does
all the business and has eliminated
ever competitor Where there is any
competition. competitors usually are
strictly under control of the Standard
they must sell oil at practically the
price the Standard dictates. Ii we are
looking at 2 degree of suppression oil
competition no combination OF moder,
times in that respect approaches that
of the Standard in all it's forms. II
we are looking to evidence OF the on
preston and unfair dealing no comb
nation is equal in it's obnoxious fea
ture. The brief is composed of three
large printed volumes of almost 500
pages each. Volume one is composed
largely of the history of the STANDARD
from the beginning to the present
time.
According to the brief the STANDARD
Is the Mother of Trusts" 1t alleges
! that the Standard was the first great
industrial combination organized
that it was conceived by John d. Rock
efeller and his counsel in order to
avoid Illegally of combining all var
4 ious concerns in the Standard in Ohio
that it was followed "as is always the
| case in attempts to evade the law. b,
namely the sugar trust, the whiske,
trust, and the paint and lead trust"
The brief declares that the testi
mony in this case shows that variou.
defendants of this case pursued un
fair competition against their com
petitors whereby independent con
Germs were either driven out of bust
ness or their business ruined so tina
the Standard practically controlled
the prices and monopolies of com
merce in products of petroler'1 of th,
United States
The condition of the Standard today
the brief says, has substantially s
per cent of the business of purchasing
crude oil in the fields and in man
places and many fields monopoly; i
the same proportion in transporting oil
to the refinery, manufacturing tn
same into various products of con
merce.''
Referring to the defense of tn
Standard that IT did not know it wa
accepting special rate from tn
Chicago & Alton and other roads a
in the twenty-nine million prosecution
the brief says:
1T cannot be possible that shiI