The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-30

| stroy the individual right to contract and | render difficult, if not impossible, any movement of trade in the channels of interstate commerce the free movement of which, it was the purpose of the stat
 ute to protect.
 "Rule of Reason" Sound "The soundness of the rule that the | statute should receive a reasonable con- l struction after further mature delibefa- l ton, we see no reason to doubt Indeed
 the necessity for not departing in this case from the standard of the rule or
 reason, which is universal in its appli- l cation, is so plainly required in order to give effect to the remedial purposes which the act under consideration contemplates' and to prevent that act from destroying all liberty of contract and all substan- tial right to trade, and thus causing the act to be at war with itself by anm- hiating the fundamental right of free- dom to trade, which, on the very race of the act, it was enacted to preserve, IS illustrated by the record before us. In truth, the plain demonstration which this record gives of the injury which would arise from, and the promotion or the wrongs which the statute was intenaed to guard against, would result from glV- ing to the statute narrow unfeason- ing and unheard-of construction, as H. lustrated by the record before us, if pos sible serves to strengthen our conviction as to the correctness of the rule Of con structon, the rule of reason, Whlch was applied in the Standard AOil case, the application of which rule to the statute we now in the most unequivocal terms re-express and reaffirm
 'When 1t came to an application or the law as laid down in the Standard oil case to the Tobacco case. all the difficul- ties suggested by the mere form in which the assailed transactions were eolthed became of no moment"
 This was becauses he said. the Standard Oil decision held that "every conceivable act which would possibly come within the spirit or purpose of the prohibition of the law without regard to the garb in which such acts were clothed was embraced in the law.
 The court next took up the problem of determining whether the acts, con- tracts, combinations, etc, complained or were of such 'an unusual and wrong ful character as to bring them within the prohibitions of the law On this point the chief justice said.
 Monopoly Proven
 ''The history of the combination is so replete with the doing of acts which it was the obvious purpose of the statute to forbid, so demonstrative of the exist
 
 acquire dominion and control of the to- bacco trade, not by the mere exertion of the ordinary right to contract and 10 trade, but by methods devised in order to monopolize the trade by driving com petitors out of business, which were ruth- lessly carried out upon the assumption that the work upon the fears or play upon the cupidity of competitors would make success possible.
 I've say these conclusions are 1n- evitable not because of the vast amount of the property aggregated by the combination, not because alone Of the many corporations which the proof shows were united by resort 10 one device or another.
 "Apain. not alone because of the do- rninion under control over the tobacco trade which actually exists but be- cause we think the conclusion Of wrongful purpose and illegal combina- ton Is overwh elmingly established py the following considerations:
 "A-By the fact that the very first organization or combination was inn pel]ed by "a previously existing fierce trade war, evidently inspired by one or more of the minds which brought about and became parties to that com oination.
 "B-Because immediately after that combination and the increase of capital
 
 justify the inference that the intention existed to use the power of the com bination as a vantage ground 10 1ur- ther monopoliZe the trade In tobacco by means of trade conflicts designed to injure others, either by driving com petitors out of the business or com pelling them to become parties to a combinatoin-a purpose whose execu- ton was illustrated by the plug war which ensued and its results, and by the conflict which immediately followed the entry of the combination in Eng land and the division of the worlds business by the two foreign contracts, which ensued. Conscious Wrong-Doing "C-By the ever present manifesto ton which Is exhibited of conscious wrongdoing by the form In which the various transactions were embodied from the beginning, ever changing, but ever in substance the same. The organ lzation of a new company, now the control exerted by the taking of stock in one or another, or in several, so as to obscure the result actually attained, nevertheless uniform, in their manifes- tations of the purpose to restrain oth- CTS and to monopolize and retain power in the hands of the few who, 1t would seem from the beginning, con- templated the mastery of the trade which practically followed.
 'D-By the gradual absorption of control over all the elements essential 10. the successful manufacture of to- bacco products and placing such con- trol in the hands of seemingly inde- pendent corporations, serving as per petual barriers to the entry of others into the tobacco trade.
 "F-By persistent expen allure of mll- Hons upon millions of dollars in buying out plants for the purpose of utilizing them, but in order to close them up and render them useless for the purposes of trade.
 "fF-By the constantly recurring stipu- lations, whose legality, insoatedly viewed, we are not considering, by which numbers of nersons, whether manufacturers, stock holders or employees, were required to bind themselves, generally for long periods, not to compete in the future.
 Indeed, when the results of the undis- puted proof which we have stated arc fully apprehended, and the wrongful acts which they exhibit are considered, there comes inevitably to the mind the con- viction that it was the danger which it was deemed would arise to individual liberty and the public well-being from acts like those which the record exhibits which led the legislative mind to conceive and to enact the antitrust act"
 The Remedy
 Lastly, the chief magistrate took up a consideration of the remedy to be applied
 The chief justice declared the relief must be wider than that awarded by the Iou,a, oo,,rt Tho circ,it court he said