Arizona republican., 1911-05-16

ed by a common body of owners in exactly the same proportion that all the subsidiary companies taken over by this new organization had been held by these same common owners for years past. The court held other f wise and said that the combination in single corporation or person, by an exchange of stock. of power of many stockholders holding the same proportion respectively of the ma ior- ity Of the stock of each of several corporations engaged in commerce in the same articles among the states. or with foreign nations. to restrict com petition therein. rendered the power thus vested in the corporation or per son greater. more easily exercised. more durable and more effective than that previously held by the stock holders. In these effects. the court , found restraint in commerce.
 The court then proceeded to evolve plan to remedy the situation. IL entered a decree. enjoining the Stan dard Oil company of New Jersey from exercising any control, by reason of its stock ownership. over the sub sidiary companies. Furthermore it en- joined these subsidiary companies from paying any dividends to the Standard Oil company of New Jersey It put a provision in the decree to enjoin any possible evasion of the decree by the organization of d sim liar combination or of the conveyance of the property to one of the defend ants. Unless the defendants should sever the relations and cease the combination within thirty days. they were to be enjoined from engaging in interstate commerce until they did cease the combination.
 From the circuit court. the case was brought to the supreme court of the United States. The record laid before the higher tribunal probably was the largest ever prepared in an American case. The petition. pleadngS. testi- mony, opinions and decree constituted twenty two large volumes of more than 800 pages each.
 The case was first argued before the supreme court in March. 19I0 but it was restored to the docket for re- argument. The case was heard the second time in January. 1911. the lat ter time before a full bench Noted attorneys appeared on either side. For the government. Attorney General Wickersham and Frank E. Kellogg. special assistant to the attorney gen. eral. addressed the court For the Standard Oil. there appeared John C. Johnson of Philadelphia. John G. Mil burn of New York, and D. T. Watson of Pittsburg.
 In his address to the court, Mir Kellogg, who took all the testimony in the case on behalf of the govern ment, said that the Standard Oil or ganiZation was not a natural growth. but was born and reared in fraud and oppression. and hangs over the com merce Of this country today like a threatening cloud"
 Tine Standard Oil company of New Jersey he told the court, controlled from S5 to 97 per cent of the oil business of the country, with q finan cial power beyond that possessed by any other combination ever known. The combination, he added, was made effective and powerful by req son of preferential rates and rebates in transportation, the greatest ever known to have been made and by un- fair and brutal methods of competi- tion, which in and of themselves be- tween merchants and corner grocery men would not be dangerous. but in the hands of a combination of this size and of this power, are the most dangerous instruments to independent dealers, manufacturers. and men en- gagged in enterprise known in com merce-"
 The other side of the contest was summarized by John G. Johnson, inI the closing argument in the case. He declared that the country did not suffer by the mere largeness of the corporation, but profited For the al legged sins that the corporation had committed, he argued. there existed an adequate remedy at law and there fore it was not necessary for equity to step in to dissolve the corpora ton. He denied that rebates were being accepted by the corporation now, or that it was cutting prices or organizing secret concerns. and characterized the governments refer ences to them in the past as neces- sary to give the proper color and raise the proper amount of indigna tiOn" in the case He declared that
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