New-York tribune., 1910-12-15
TO TRY TO BREAK
ELECTRICAL TRUST"
Government About to Begin
What 1t Considers Great
est Anti Trust Suit.
HINGES ON PATENT LAWS
Alleged Combination To Be At
tackled in SectiOns-Many
Companies Doing Business
Under General Head.

Washington, Dec. 1.-THE govern
ment's attack on the so-calied "Elec-
trical Trust will begin before New
Years Day unless present plans are
changed
On certain date, which is being kept
secret between now and the beginning
Of 1911 a bin in equity against one sec
tier of the combina ton will be fled in
some United States court east of the
Mississippi River.
Then will begin what the Department
of Justice considers the biggest anti
trust suit of its history, and one which
involves q test of the Sherman law
never brought before. The governments s
case will depend largely on the interpre-
tation of the patent laws.
One of the governments prosecutors
declares that when the action is instl-
ttited it will be recognized as far eclips-
ing the Standard Oil case in magnitude
and public importance, and conserV-
tive estimate is that it will cost the gov
ernment not less than S1.OD.OO to
prosecute it to the end. This latter fact
i, said to be the answer of the Depart
nent of Justice to criticisms of delay.
Attorney General Wickersham has been
unwilling to involve the government IN
that great expense without the fullest
investigation of the government $
chances of proving what it will allege.
The inveStiga tien is not completed, but
il has disclosed an object of such pro-
portions that the Department of Justice
Has abandoned any idea of attacking the
combination as a whole. and intends 10
Gcht the so-called trust III sections.
The bill soon to be filed VIII be against
enc of the eighteen or twenty divisions
of the alleged mbination which inves-
tisators OF the Department OF Justice
report having found doing business uh-
der :; general head. All the commod1-
Tics in the use of electricity have been
CivideG into groups. the Investigators
md all of them are controlled by d
central orga anlzation.
incandescent lights are said 10 be con-
troiIed by one group copper wire 10y an
other. streecar motors by another trans
forming machinery by still another. ana
so on down the list of electrical appii-
ances
The government will file its first suit
against one of those sections ana folio"
i nv actions against the others as last
as Investigations are completed
The eo-calIed Electrical Trust Is com-
nosed OF the General Electric Company,
,.a,,italized a = $50. .O00 $50; the Western Elec-
tric Company. capitalized at S9.o0,ool; the
Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing
Co,nnanv. capital $60.0,o.00O, and others
These various companies it Is said. are all
controlled by one body. although they are
ostensibly distinct and separate orsaniHa-
fions. Among them they manufacture ana
market incandescent electric lights troiley
motors boat motors. automobile motors
heating apparatus. copper wiring ana every
ca,,,p,oditv used in connection with cleo
trio power.
The officers and directors of these conf
nanies in part. are: For the General t-iec-
,,io ce-,,nanv: Charles a. Coffin. president;
N,vror Il Westover. secretary; Henry w.
nar,inr treasurer DirectorsJ. Pierpont
No,oau Marsden j. Perry. Robert Treat
pin, Cd T. jefferson Coolidge. jr., Fred
.r,c,, = Fish Oliver Ames and Charles
steele.
Western Electric Company Harry Il.
T,av.r. president: James w Johnston
treasurer: George {. --ratt. secretary. d
r.ctors-Enos NJ Barton. Henry ). Howe
w Murray Crane. Theodore y. Vail, s. l.
Schoonmaker and 'ohn l. Waterbury.
nh. Westinghouse Electric and Manu-
featuring Company: Directors-Rober1
Nather chairman Richard Delafed
Thomas w Lamont, Anthony \. Brady
George Westinghouse. William McConway
! Charles A. Moore and James \. Kuhn.
Whom a Tribune reporter talked to Mr.
xytoain of the Westinghouse Electric ans
Manufacture Company. over the teie
| nl,one last night the director said. whe:
| asked about the governments suit agains
/ the trust:
Il am not well enough acquainted Will
J Continued on second page.