The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-13
Decision Sweeping

washinpton october 12.-By the sweeping decision entered in the United States circuit court at Toledo today, the backbone of the called electric trust was broken and in the Judgment or At torney General Wickersham, the govern ment was equipped with precedents of genuine value in it's prosecutions of com merciaI combinations forbidden by the Sherman law.
 Meeting the governments charges that the trust controlled the electric lamp business of the country, regulating DIV agreement prices al which all lamps were sold, the decree sewers all relations be- tween the General Electric company ana the National Electric Lamp company. The latter concern and all it's subsidiaries are ordered dissolved.
 Contracts and combinations entered into by the defendants, the Attorney General pointed out today, are declared nnla"lui and the companies are enjoined from en- tering into any agreement to control the prices of incandescent lamps. The pfln- oiples were laid down, according 10 the Attorney General, that once lamp ,s sold by manufacturer, the price at wnlcn it is resold by dealer or joppef must be open to free competition
 Defendants Will Not Appeal
 me decree was acquicsced in by the ] defendant companies and this gives the M government the moral certainty there VIII be no appeal. After the supreme courts decision in the standard oil and tobacco cases. MT. Wickersham said, the eiectfi- cal companies expressed a willingness 10 withdraw their original answers to the government's petition against them ana submit to a decree. The matter was con sidered by the department Of justice ana the attorneys for the defendants through ar @ decree filed today being evolved as satisfactory to the government.
 There are similar decrees agalhst other combinations the government is prosecnt- ing which are likely to follow shortly with the acquiescence of the deIendants concerned A decree in the Southern Wholesale Grocers' association. case against which the government sometime ago entered suit is now ready for filing, the attorney general announced, and Tho case will be disposed of as soon as judge in Alabama can be secured to en- ter the decree.
 Spea<ing of the electrical combinations, MT. Wickersham said it appeared to con trol practically 97 per cent of the electric lamp business.
 Other Patent Pools
 .sThe investigation out of which the case grew" the attorney general con tinued disclosed Il other patent Dools of a similar nature by which the prices of various electrical devices and supplies were fixed, and to which some of these defendants were parties. But since the institution of this suit all these pools have been voluntarily dissolved. .The investigation also disclosed a gen. eral trade and patent agreement between the General Electric company and the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing company, the two largest electrical con cerns in the country, covering substan- tially their whole business; but this agree ment since the institution of the govern- ment's suit has expired by limitation and has not been and, it is believed, wii3 Aot be renewed. -s
 By ths decree the contracts and com binations entered into by all the defend- ants are declared unlawful.
 'The National Lamp company and all its subsidiary companies are ordered to be dissolved, and the General Electric company is forbidden hereafter to con- duct any business in the manufacture or sales of electric except in it's own hame. .
 Fixing Resale Prices Forbidden
 "The practice of fixing the resale price on any style of lamps, whether patented or unpatented, Is hereafter forbidden, end when once a lamp has been manufac- tured by the owner of patent or his li-
 
 dealer, the price at which such dealers sells to another. or to the public, is open to free competition.
 ''The method by which competition in rnpatented articles has been suppressed through the use of a patented article is declared to be unlawful, and is forbidden The manner in which this was done is fully explained in the government's bill, but in brief it may be stated that the practice consisted in g system of con tracts with dealers. jobbers and consum- CTS by which they were compelled to agree to purchase from the defendants all their supply of carbon lamps on which the patent had expired as q condition to the right to purchase certain lamps known to the trade as Tungsten, Tan talum and Metallixed Filament lamps which are still claimed to be patented. By means of aggregating discounts on lamps claimed to be patented with discounts on lamps not patented, another weapon was used to suppress competition in un- patented lamps.
 Both these practices had the effect of continuing monopoly on an article long after the patent had expired by tying up its sale with a patented arti- cle which the trade required.
 "The General Electric company and Bil of the defendants engaged in the manufacture of electric lamps are en- joined from entering into or carrying out, certain contracts which 1t has been the practice to make in the past by which the manufacturers of bulbs, tub S~~~~~~~~~~.-s >A~~~<>~~~-
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