The Mena weekly star., 1910-03-24
O|L ARGUMENT ENDS
DISSOLUTION CASE AGAINST THE STANDARD NOW BEFORE
 THE SUPREME COURT.
LIFE OR DEATH FOR THE TRUST
The Decision When Handed Down Win Either Perpetuate the Big Corpora. ton or Dismember It-Judges Will Take Their Own Time.

Washington, Mar. 1S.-That cour. from whose decision no appeal will lie now has before it the completed case of the government against the Stan. dard Oil corporation of New Jersey. The supreme court heard the last of three days of argument for and against the dissolution of the greatest in dustrial concern ever organized. When the court will render the decision that will either perpetuate the Rockefeller corporation or else dismember 1t. is a matter that court will make known at its own good pleasure.
 There is a sort of general expecta- tion among the lawyers that the deci sion will be handed down before or at the end of the present term.
 The closing arguments in the case were bitter Attorney General Wick ersham besought the court to root up this gigantic monopoly that threat ems the very life of the nation, and tc tear from 1t the fruits of its fraud while John Johnson. charged the gov ernment with the attempted confisca ton of great property built up by in. dustry, energy and. he declared, with honesty.
 That to dissolve the holding corpor. ation of New Jersey would be the con. fiscation of the great Standard of property, was the one leading conten ton of the corporation lawyers. Il
 was also argued that the Sherman ac, does not ond the congress cannot limit the amount of wealth an institution
 many accumulate, nor the use that is to be made of that wealth We had a right under the Sherman act to form the Standard Oil company of New Jersey"
 'The lawyers for the defendant have
 tried to throw a veil over its acts be fore 1899 and I do not wonder tha; they have" was the way the attorney general began his speech, and then
 he went on to tear the veil from the
 history of what he called this bru.
 tai corporation
 He told of the various attempts to form combination and the final act | in transferring everything to the New | Jersey corporation as a result of g fear among the partners that one might die and throw his estate into
 chancery, or that another might out live his income and put up some
 of his securities.
 MT Watson spent some time explain | ing that the decision in the north. ern securities case was not applicable 1 to the one at bar
 | If the evidence shows a long con | tiRued, wilfui and intentional viola | ton Of the law, Mir. Wickersham said l in reply to the charge of confiscation then the decree of the court should i cut 1t up by the roots, The gov
 ernment is not here asking the con ] fiscation Of their property, but 1t ask: to tear from Ii the fruits of its fraud
 The cry goes abroad that if ths
 Sherman act is applied to the com binations 1t will destroy the indus
 tries that have made ke country | what it is The same crF went uI when the Northern Securities case wal
 on trial, yet there never was a more l salutary decision than that one Moth l ing more was ever done 10 stem tho | rising time of socialism than the de cision of the court in that case | that combination had been permitted 1 to stand, why, all the railroads wesi 1 of the Mississippi would have beer under one control hy now. and in time l all the Eastern lines would have beer
 swallowed up. As consequence ot
 such accumulation. the government
 would have to step in and take con trol, q consummation devoutly to bt 1 feared
 Tt seems to me" was his final word
 that if there ever was or could b'
 a combination in restraint of trade. ;
 combination for all time with a mono poly in perpetuity, it is before youl