The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-01-03
TOBACCO TRURT IS
 ON TRIAL Sixty Corporations, Repre- senting An Alleged Capi-
 tai of $400, ,O00, ,ooo, Con-
 trol World Wide
 Monopoly Have Practiced Unfair Trade Methods and Exer-
 cised Duress, Lawyers for Government De- clare Grip of Trust on All Branch es of Tobacco Trade
 Shown to Be Substantially Complete =" "Only Vigor- ous Measures Can Remove Mischief"
(Special from United Press. !

\OUSClct1 1IOIu OIllIGu ETSSS.J Washington, Jan. 3.-Argument was begun in the Supreme Court of the
 United States today in one of the gov ernment's biggest trust-busting suits.
 The Tobacco Trust is on trial. The government seeks its destruc- tion and the appointment of a receiver to segregate the sixty odd corporations now parties to the combination and once again restore competition in the tobacco industry.
 The governments highest priced law yers are ''on the job.'
 Special Attorney J. c. MacReynolds opened the argument and Attorney General Wickersham will close it. The government desires that the opinion
 of the Supreme court shall go farther than that of the Circuit court at New
 York, which adjudged all except few of the foreign corporations and several individuals guilty of attempt at mo-
 nopoly in restraint of trade and
 strengthen the Sherman antitrust law with sweeping decision against pre- datory combinations.
 Step by step MacReyno1ds in his ar gument today traced the history of the trust, its operations and it's mechanic ians. He held that the present time
 S1XIy OOO COTpOrdC1OnS, representing d
 capital of 0000O, 900, were parties to the combination and that it's tenacles extended over the whole world, engulf-
 ing in the United States at least, the independent or small dealer, destroying
 free competition and debasing the in dustry.
 tTn. pursuance of<their purpose to acquire a monopoly of the industry" said the special attorney, they have constantly practiced unfair trade methods and exercised duress. They used their greater power in oppres- sive ways; they have been actuated by
 unfair purposes to destroy competi- tion and obtain Tnonoplies. Competi-
 tors have gradually disappeared and the combination, now strongly en- trenched, unduly restricts the business of those in the trade and prevents others from entering. Competition has
 been consistently destroyed; scores of contracts have retired skilled men from the trade. Only vigorous mea- sures can remove the mischief"
 Mac Reynolds was very plain-spok- en in his denunciation of the trust.
 Wicked methods "sinister agen- cies,'' and ubiquitous practices fnhab-
 ited by an uncivilized conscience were some of the expressions he us- ed The action of the circuit court
 in disnissing the bill against the Un- | , and likewise the decree of that court
 generating the Imperial and British
 American Tobacco Companies, foreign
 companies, from the law. He declared
 that the advertising bill of $10,000,000
 (spent in 1866 by the trust,) was more to influence business and the public sentiment to the belief that there was no combiE ation. The combination was illegal not only under the Sherman antitrust law, but as we'll under the common law, was another contention made by MacReynolds.
 In his arraignment, the special at- terney summed up the grip which the .'trust'' has on the entire tobacco in
 dustry by showing that it controls ab- solutely the manufacture and sale of: All of the cigarettes for export; Practically all of the snuff and lit- tie cigars.
 Three-fourths of the smoking to- bacco and cigarettes for domestic sale; More than three-fourths of the plug, twist and fine cut tobacco; Ninety five per cent of the licorice paste product a commodity absolutely necessary in the manufacture of to- bacco:
 1hree-fourths of the output of tin filling:
 A great deal of the box manufac- ture, tobacco machinery, pipes, con- tanners, etc.