The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1910-09-01
SANITARY COMBINE
EVIDENCE SOUGHT
UNITED STATES INVESTIGATOR IN
COLUMBUS SEEKING
INFORMATION.
OHIO CORPORATIONS MADE DEFENDANTS
Combination Of Makers of Sanitary
Enamel Ware Was Effective June
Of This Year, According
to Petition.


is believed to be obtainable in Colum-
bus, Joseph Darling, special agent of
the bureau of investigation of the
department of justice, is registered at
the Chittenden. working at the So
called bath-tub trust case, one of the
most important prosecutions the pres
ent administration has started under
the Sherman antitrust law The suit
was begun July %. 1t will come on
for hearing in the fall term of court
The petition was filed in the United
States circuit court, District of Mary
land. The United States of America
is the petitioner and the Standard
Sanitary Manufacturing Co. of Pitts
| burg and others are defendants. Fifty
parties are named defendants, both
corporations and their officers being
separately named. The Ohio corpora
tions made defendants are The Barnes
Manufacturing Co. of Mansfield, the
Day-Ward Co. of Warren, the Humph-
reys Manufacturing Co. of Mansfield
and the National Sanitary Manufac-
turing Co. of Salem.
The petition is signed by George w.
Wickersham, attorney general, Will
liam S. Kenyon, assistant attorney
general; Edwin P. Grosvenor, special
assistant to the attorney general, and
John Philip Hill, United States at
torney. Grosvenor is the man who
has prepared some of the most i'm
portant trust cases for the govern
ment.
According to the petition the COM
bination of makers of sanitary enam-
eled iron ware was effective June l
of this year and the government seems
the first Appended to the petition
which was filed in court were num-
Der of letters, calculated to show the
scheme whereby the organization of
makers was held together, how prices
were maintained to the wholesale and
retail trade and how coerced to enter.
The petition alleges that these plain
tiffs manufacture IS per cent of the
output of these wares in this coun-
try.
1t is alleged that the parties to the
combination were aware of the illegal
nature of the thing they were attempt
ing to do and therefore adopted an
anusual expedient to give color to
their practice. Three of their number
made over to a fourth person, E. L..
Wayman, who became known as the
licensor, all their rights, joint and
several to three letters patent, COW
ering certain processes in the manu-
facture of sanitary enameled iron
ware. Rights to use these patents
were then issued by Wayman to all
the parties to the combination, 16 in
all, and as part of the consideration
tor the use of these patent rights it
was stipulated at what price goods
should be sold to jobbers and at what
prices might be resold by jobbers
and what price goods may be resold
by them to the trade, also the territory
in which each particular firm should
nave the rlSh TO trade.
The petition charges that the defend
ants by agreement have largely in
creased the prices at which they sell
their products to the jobbers, and that
they are cooperating to fight manu-
facturers of enameled iron ware who
are not parties of the combination.
A memorandum of agreement, which
is marked Exhibit 8" and which is
signed by all of the companies part
ners to this suit, shows that they
bound themselves, Voluntarily, to pay
for each violation of the contract they
agreed to sign a sum equal to the
entire amount involved in the ship
ment which constituted the violation;
that the selling price of the jobbers
was to be determined by a committee
of five, and that there was to be pay
ment of a 10 per cent rebate to all
parties to the agreement at the end
of the stated periods, for the faithful
observances of the contract.
The scheme to control the jobber is
set forth in the jobber's license
agreement, which it is alleged each
jobber had to sign before he was al
lowed to handle this kind of ware He
had to pay the stipulated price for his
goods and sell them at the same price.
After he had sold them he was al
lowed rebate on the price paid. This
varied according to the goods and the
total amount sold. 1t ranged from 2h
per cent for $4,000 to 5 per cent for
$4,000. In paragraph 10 of this agree
ment the jobber undertakes not to
deal in any sanitary ware other than
that furnished by the alleged combine.
Strike Practically Broken.
The strike of street car employees of
the Columbus Railway C Light Co. has
been practically broken. The people
of Columbus have given up riding in
carriages and busses and once again
are crowding the cars. The men are
expected to apply for their positions
within the next two or three days in
asmuch as they now admit that they
cannot longer hold up their end of
the strike. The result will be that
the union will not be formed though
the men will get their advance in
wages.
Negroes Fight in the Pen.
Albert Harris, colored, serving two
years for grand larceny from Scioto
county, and Glib Johnson, Columbus
negro, who ran afoul of the laws
majesty and is serving 10 years for
burglary mixed it up in club and
knife fight in the penitentiary bath
house. Harris is in the hospital with