River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-05-18

'"Thus on the one hand with relent-
| less pertinacity and minuteness of
analysis" said the chief justice, 1T
is insisted that the facts established
that the assailed combination took it's
birth in purpose to unlawfully &C
Guire wealth by depressing the pub
| lie and destroying the just rights OF
others, and that it's entire career ex-
emplifies an memorable carrying out Of
such wrongful intents, since, it is as
serted, the pathway Of the combination
from the beginning of the time of the
| filing of the bill is marked with con-
slant proofs of wrong inflicted upon
! the public and is strewn with the
wrecks resulting from crushing out,
without regard to law, the individual
| rights of others. It is as
serted that the existence of the prin-
| cipal corporate defendant, the Stand
ard Oil Company Of New Jersey, with
! it's vast accumulation of property, be-
cause of it's potency for harm and the
dangerous example which it's contin-
ued existence affords, is an open and
enduring menace to all freedom of
trade and a by-word and reproach to
all modern economic methods.
"On the other hand, in powerful
analysis of the facts, it is insisted that
| they demonstrate that the origin and
development of the vast business
which the defendants control was but
! the result Of lawful competitive meth
DDS, guided by economic genius of the
highest order, sustained by courage, by
keen insight into the commercial sit
uation resulting in the acquisition of
great wealth, but at the same time
serving to stimulate an increased pro-
duction, to widely extend the distribu-
ton of the products of petroleum at
6 cost largely below that which other
wise have prevailed, thus proving to
be at one and the same time a bene-
faction to the general public as well
as an enormous advantage to individ-
uals."
Government Fully Upheld.
Commenting upon the Standard Oil
decision, Attorney General Wicker
sham said that the court unanimously
affirmed the decree rendered by the
circuit court in favor of the govern
ment in every particular, save that
give the defendants six months in
stead of 80 days time in which to
comply with the decree.
President Mum on Decision.
President Taft and his cabinet in
the regular session today will take up
he Of he ST
brought sharply before them by the
Standard Oil decision.
The president himself had -lWthing
to say about the decision. He @ished,
he told callers, to read it carefully,
to discuss it with the cabinet and to
dissect it with Mr.. Wickersham. I'm
til these things had been done, he
had no opinion to voice.
Washington, May 16.-Setting aside
the sentences of Imprisonment i'm
posed by the supreme court of the
District of Columbia, for alleged dis
obedience to a boycott injunction, the
supreme court of the United States
held that Samuel Gompers, John
Mitchell and Frank Morrison, presi-
dent, vice-president and secretary re-
spectively of the American Fedora
ton of Labor, had been enormously
sentenced to Jail on a charge of con-
tempt of a local court.
The court unanimously held that
the only sentences that could be i'm
posed upon the labor leaders were
fines. In so holding the supreme
court of the United States found that
the court of appeals of the District
of Columbia and the supreme court
of the district erred in treating the
contempt proceedings as a criminal
case and not civil one. The effect
of holding the proceedings civil one
was to make Jail sentences impos-
sible. Hence the Jail sentences had
to be set aside.
Inasmuch as all of the differences
between the labor men and the Buck
Stove and Range company have been
| adjudicated including the boycott
case out of which the contempt pro-
ceedings arose. today's decision is
probably the last to be heard OF this
famous action.
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