Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1910-12-01
Government Begins Action to
Dissolve Combination
BITTER FIGHT IS EXPECTED
Estimated That at Least Two Years
Will Pass Before Final Adjudi-
cation Is Reached.

New York, Nov. 29.-The federal
government has begun one of it's most
important actions against great corpo-
rations which are said to have violated
the Sherman antitrust law.
Henry A. Wise, United States dis.
trict attorney, filed in the United
States district court for the Southern
district of New York a petition ask
ing for the dissolution of the American
Sugar Refining company and twenty.
nine other corporations which com
pose the 80 called sugar trust. The
petition charges an illegal combina.
ton in restraint of trade and asks from
the court relief in whatever form may
be necessary, including a receivership,
If deemed advisable.
The thirty companies composing the
sugar combine control a large per-
centage of the output of sugar in this
country. The combine is able, the
government alleges, to fix prices ar
bitrarily. The petition charges that
for years the companies have violated
the law and have oppressed competi-
tors and ground them out of exist
nee. Railroad rebates and customs
frauds are mentioned as devices
which were employed to raise the
combine to the commanding position
which it occupies today.
Bitter Fight Expected.
The present suit, which, it is esti-
mated, will be in the courts for two
years before a final adjudication is
reached, is the result of many weeks
of preparation. District Attorney
Wise made his Investigations under
the direction of Attorney General
Wickersham and spent several days
In Washington last week in comforting
with the attorney general OF the final
plans. The suit is expected to rank
in Importance with those of the gov.
eminent against the Standard Oil
company and the American Tobacco
company, which are now pending in
the supreme court.
One of the allegations is that the
late H. o. Havemeyer of New York,
long head Of the sugar combine, re-
ceived SO, 600 900 common stock of the
National Sugar Refining company of
New Jersey as a gift at the time the
corporation was formed to take into
the combine four independent con-
Germs, the National Sugar Refining
company, run by B. H. Howells Son &
Co.; the New York Sugar Refining
company of Long Island City, N. Y,
operated by Claus Dosher; the Mollen-
hauer Sugar Refining company of
Brooklyn and the w. j. McCahan SUI
gar Refining company of Philadelphia.
Conspiracy Is Alleged.
In general, the petition charges that
the defendants for some time past
have been and are o engaged in an
unlawful combination and conspiracy
to restrain the trade and
among and between the several states
and territories of the United States
and foreign nations, in raw sugar, III
gar beets, refined sugar, molasses,
syrups, and other by-products of raw
sugar and sugar beets and to monopo-
lie the same.
Such unlawful combination and con-
spiracy is the result and outgrowth of
a series OF wrongful acts extending
over a period of many years and par
~ticipated in by defendants, respective
ly, in the manner and to the extent
hereinafter more fully set forth. In
participating in the various acts,
agreements and combinations herein
after described all of the defendants
have been actuated by wrongful intent
. restrain said interstate and foreign
trade and m in raw and re-
fined sugar and related articles and to
m~onopolize parts thereof"