The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-02-24
TOBACCO COMPANY
DECISION IS HELD.
Supreme Court Waiting to
Hear Arguments in STAN
dard Oil Case.
BOTH OPINIONS AT ONCE
SOME POINTS OF DIFFERENCE IN
THE TWO TRUST CASES.

Washington, D. c., Feb. 23.-While
the supreme court of the United States
has vOuchsafed no information on the
subject, it is generally supposed here
that the decision in the case Of the
American Tobacco company, which has
already been argued before the court,
will not be handed down at least until
after the argument in the case of the
Standard Oil company, which is set for
March IA. Attorney General Wicker
sham, in his motion to advance the hear
ing of the latter case, described the two
as essentially kindred, and suggested to
the court that they be considered to-
gether.
Lawyers here generally concur in the
statement made by Mr.. Wickersham to
the court that these two cases togeth-
er present for its consideration 'practi-
cally the entire range of modern indus
trial organizations in this country" and
substantially every feature of the trust
question" so far as il falls within the
purview of the Sherman antitrust law.
Yet they are not precisely alike; indeed,
1t is said that in some particulars they
are so dissimilar that the court might
find in favor of the government in one
Proceedings in Equity.
The two cases are alike in that they
are proceedings in equity to enjOin al
legged violations of the law of the land.
Neither is in its essence o criminal aC-
ton. In neither does the government
seek to procure either Imprisonment of
individuals or exemplary fines upon the
defendants. In both suits the charges
pressed are those alleging unlawful
combination and conspiracy in restraint
of interstate trade and commerce, and
continuing monopoly or attempted mon
opoly of important elements in inter-
state commerce.
Jersey is attacked as a holding COM
pany." Out of its 100000 capital
stock, over $97, 600, 600 was exchanged in
1899, according to the government fig
ures, for stock in nineteen otner cOrpOr-
atoms, engaged in the various branches
Of the petroleum business.
Where They Differ.
The American Tobacco company is al
legged to be both a holding and an OPP
Grating company. 1t is actively engaged
in the tobacco business, owns its own
shops and sells the manufactured prod
company the raw product is to an ex-
tent produced by the corporation; in
that of the tobacco combination the raw
material is purchased.
While the Sherman law does not
specifically prohibit the organization Of
holding companies, the supreme court
declared in the Northern Securities case
that the holding company constituted
an organization in restraint of trade and
commerce.
The government charges that from the
time of the organization of the Stand
ard Oil company in 1899 a monopoly was
obtained; that in fact for years prior
to that virtual monopoly had existed,
and that the various forms which the
conspiracy alleged against the oil COM
pany has taken have been merely adap-
tations to the changing needs and con-
ditions of the times.
In the tobacco case it is alleged that
when the merger was cOnsum-
mated in 1890 there was monopoly
only in the cigarette trade; the defend
ants claim that the control of the bust
ness then secured has since materially
dWindled.