The San Francisco call., 1910-12-02
1aw- were returned by the

Cartwright law, were returned by the
grand jury.
Then began a series OF delays. The
law was invoked on every possible oc-
casion to bring about every possible
delay. There followed a storm of OBJ
iections. demurrers, postponements and
excuses. The work of meeting the
legal fight was placed in the hands OF
James F. Brennan. assistant district
attorney. The cases were fought and
refouaht in their preliminary stages,
but eventually the framework of tech
nicalities was swept down and the de-
PENDANTS were face TO face with trial.
Then 1T was that y of them sought
refuge in having testified before the
senate committee and in that plea they
found safe sanctuary. The remaining
eight had no such refuge. They fought
TO the last moment. but yesterday when
the time approached for the impanel-
ing of the jury, they surrendered to the
inevitable. pleaded guilty and begged
for mercy.
FISH TRUST MEMBERS
OF the men who pleaded guilty Tar
antino and Maggie are officials OF the
NWestern fish company, Giacomino Mar
chi and Rosario Villa of the Interna-
t:onal fish company, John p. Kessing
and Henry P. Ritore Of the California
Ash company. and Giuseppe Partinic9
and salvatore Dentici of the New San
Francisco fish company. All these con-
Germs were charged with forming the
fsh trust.
Such was the arrogance and domin-
eeriug attitude of the trust that it
maintained blacklist of those inde-
pendent concerns which refused TO bow
down to its rules. other dealers trad
ing with firms on the blacklist were
given to understand that such business
must stop and. on account of the
Strength and power welded by the
combination such business usually did
stop. EACH day saw it growing stronger
and its legitimate rivals weaker. BY
the time The Call began its inVestiga-
ton the trust was in a position to cut,
underseH and generally demoralize the
fish market at will. Furthermore.
small dealers who bought certain
kind Of fish elsewhere than from a com
pany representing the trust had to
face a boycott of all the firms in the
combine.
PRAISES THE CALL
The situation was one" said Flick
ert. (which worked great harm on the
citizens, and The Call is to be highly
complimented in taking the initiative
in breaking up the trust. Since the ex-
pose in The Call and the prosecutions
began the high prices have dropped to
a normal basis.
Assistant District Attorney Brennan
vas highly pleased at the success.
I'VE have had much with which to
contend" he said. but the pleas of
guilty from the eight prove beyond all
shadow of a doubt the existence of a
trust Evidence to this effect was in
the hands Of The Call and in the Office
of the district attorney, but the general
public seemed TO have some doubts.
Now that doubt may be entirely re-
moved.
Apart from the general good of
breaking up the trust and lowering the
price of fish the prosecution of these
cases viii make it evident to others
that illegal combination is fraught
with good deal of danger. A belief
senled to be common in certain business
circles that a combine had only to be
strong enough to defy the law. That
idea. ] hope. viii fast disappear. The
pleas Of guilty are a great saving to
the state. / estimated that to try the
cases with any hope of a conviction
would cost about $4,000 in each in
stance, but this money now Can remain
in the city treasury.