Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1910-03-16
GOVERNMENT BACKS UP PETl-
" TON THAT OIL TRUST BE
DISSOLVED.
ENFORCE OR REPEAL THE LAW
Declares That It Is Absolute Monopo-
~ In Many Districts.-Standard's
Argument Met BY Wicker
sham and Kellogg.


make the people respect it,
With this declaration of it's guiding
principle, the department of Justice
filed with the supreme court of the
United States thousand page brief
in support of it's petition that "Stand-
ard Oil" be dissolved as in violation
Of the Sherman antitrust law. The
brief will be the foundation of the
governments oral argument at the
hearing of the case by the supreme
court next Monday. It bears the
names of Attorney General Wicker.
sham and Of Frank B: kellogg, Charles
B. Morrison and Cordenio A. Sever
ance, as special assistants.
One Of the two thick volumes of the
brief is devoted to an analysis of tes-
timony taken in the circuit court of
the United States for the eastern dis.
trict of Missouri, which decreed that
"Standard Oil'' be dissolved It rep
resents years of governmental investi-
cation Of the oil business.
The government declares this shows
the rebates and discriminatory rates
received by the Standard Oil combina-
ton, not only during it's formative
period, but during the last ten years,
whereby the Standard was enabled
to bring large part of the concerns
into the combination and to crush out
and eliminate from the field of com.
petition the principal part of the bal
ance."
Eliminates Competitors.
1t Is claimed by the government that
It shows "a system of lowering the
prices, where competitors are doing
business, below the cost of the prod
uct, while keeping up or raising the
prices in other parts of the country
until the competitor is either eliminat.
ed or his business brought within a
compass so that the Standard Oil COM
pany con control it; OF obtaining
secret information as to competitive
business, largely through bribing rail.
way employees and using that secret
information to procure cOuntermand-
ing of orders Of Independents and to
facilitate their system of price cutting
and oppression; of the use of so-called
bogus independent companies whose
operations are predatory and oppres-
sive, principally used to drive out COM
petitors; and various other means"
eve do not wish to be understood
as discouraging enterprise" says the
government, cor as taking a position
against legitimate competition, but if
the Sherman act means anything in
this country it means a monopoly &C.
quired by each methods of competi-
ton as this. Unless it is enforced the
small corporation or individual who
| wishes to engage in business will have
absolutely no opportunity at all''
The oft repeated argument that
this construction of the law prevents
the formation of partnerships and the
| legitimate consolidation of business
enterprises" says the government, '"is
fallacious, for the reason that such
construction has no application where
an enterprise is formed with the hon.
est and legitimate intent to pursue a
lawful business not going beyond the
bounds Of legitimate combination or
directly or substantially suppress CON-
petition. But whenever that acquisi.
ton is mere cloak to cover the in.
tention of monopolizing commerce or
for the purpose of using it as a wea.
pom to strike down competition, it is
illegal. It follows from this that the
acquisition of the same property
might under some circumstances be
legal while under other circumstances
it will be illegal"
IF they were not competing" says
the government, 1T was because of
an unlawful combination in the form
Of the trust, or during the liquidation
period, because of the conspiracy of
the Individual stockholders We have
seen this trust was void. Certainly
the conspiracy between the stockhold.
ers of these subsidiary corporations
was directly inhibited by the Sherman
act"