Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-03-12

| Of 10 companies, which in turn con-
trolled a large number of others, all
but one engaged in the oil business
What it found as to this combina'
ton was that:
! That since 1899 the affairs of all
these companies have been managed
by the principal company as the bus
mess of a single person, so as to fix
for them the price of crude oil, the
rates for transportation and the SELL
ing prices of it's products.
That the par value Of the combined
capital stock in 1899 was about
81 90, 900, 900, and that in 1903 it was
$50, oO0.o
That ~ of these companies owned
"a ,565 miles of pipe lines.
That six of these companies had
1874 selling stations throughout the
United States.
| That these companies from 1899
to 1907 produced more than one
tenth of the crude oil obtained in
this country.
! That they owned and operated
more than one-half of all the tank
cars used to distribute its products.
That they manufactured more than
three-fourths of all the crude oil re-
fined in the United States.
That they transported more than
four-fifths of the petroleum derived
from the Pennsylvania and Indiana
oil fields.
That they marketed more than
four-fifths of all the Illuminating oil
cold i, tho TInitn6 Stopoc
That they exported more than
four-fifths of all the Illuminating oil
sent forth from the United States.
That they sold more than four
ffths of all the. naptha sold in the
United States ia"
| That they sold more than nine
tenths of. all the lubricating oil sold
TO railroad companies in the United
Estates"
Is on this finding the court decreed:
EThat the organization of 1899 was a
coordination or conspiracy in re-
straint of interstate commerce in pc,
troleum and its products, such as the
first section of the Sherman anti.
trust act declares is Illegal; that the
seven individual defendants, the
Standard Oil Company of New Jer-
sey and 80 other companies l ad en-
tered into a combination or conspir.
/ acy to monopolize and had in fact
monopolized substantial part of
interstate commerce in violation of
the. second section of the Sherman
antitrust act; that 80 other COM
panies accused were proven not to be
in this combination.
The court enjoined the principal
company and its directors from ex-
ercising any control over the subsid.
larry companies; it enjoined the SUBJ
sidiary companies from declaring or
paying any dividends to the princi-
pal company, but not from distribu-
ting ratably to the shareholders of
the principal company the stock of
the subsidiary company; it enjoin-
ed those found to be in the ''illegal
combination" from continuing in it
or forming new combination by
means of aggregation of the physical
properties in the hands of one men,
Der of the combination, and forbade
those in the combination from engag-
ing in interstate commerce until the
com bination was discontinued.
The counsel arrayed in defense of
the Standard Oil includes John G..
Milburn, of Buffalo, N. Y, in whose
home Mckinley died; D. T. Watson
and John G. Johnson, leaders of the
Pennsylvania bar; and Moritz Rosen-
thai, the legal pillar of the Standard
Oil interests. OF these Johnson
made the principal argument to the
supreme court in tie defense in the
tobacco cases. The defense has urg-
ed that the corporations, which en-
tered into the organization of 1899,
had not been competitors since 1879;
that the stockholders of the princi-
pal company were the joint owners
Of the stock of the subsidiary CON-
panies and had the right to convey
their stock in the latter to the form
er in trust for themselves, and con-
gress was without power to restrict
their acquisition, their methods of
holding or their disposition Of their
title to their property or their use
@ Do0 DQD