Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1911-12-07
TAKES UP TRUST PROBLEM
Only Matter Touched On In Presidents
Message to Congress
Additional Legislation to Strengthen Present
Statutes Is Recommended --Defends Stand
ard Oil and Tobacco Decisions

its unlawful dominion. Under the de-
cree these defendants will hold amounts
Of stock in the various distributes COM
panies ranging from Al per cent. as a
maximum to 2Sh per cent. as a minimum,
except in the case Of one small company,
the Porto Rican Tobacco company, in
which they will hold Is per cent. The
twenty-nine individual defendants are en-
Joined for three years from buying any
stock except from ZACH other, and the
group Is thus prevented from extending
Its control during that period. All parties
to the suit, and the new companies who
are made parties, arc enjoined perpetual
ly from in any way e~ffecting any COM
b~ination between any of the companies
in violation of the statute by
way of resumption Of the old trust. Each
Of the fourteen companies Is e~njoined
from acquiring stock in any Of the others.
All these companies are enJoined from
having common directors or officers, or
common buying or selling agents, or com
mon Offices, or lending money to each
other.
Size Of New Companies.
Objection was made by certain indie
pendent tobacco companies that this set
Element was unjust because 1t left com
panies with very large capital In active
business, and that the settlement that
would be effective to put all on an equal
ity would be a division of the capital and
plant of the trust into small fractions In
amount more nearly equal to that of each
of the independent companies. This con-
tention results from a misunderstanding
Of the antitrust law and Its purpose.
1t Is not intended thereby to prevent the
accumulation of large capital in business
enterprises in which such a combination
can secure reduced cost Of production,
sale and distribution. 1t Is directly
against such an aggregation OF capital
only when it's purpose Is that of sitting
competition, enhancing or controlling
prices and establishing a monopoly. If
we shall have by the decree defeated these
purposes and restored competition be-
tween the large units into which the cap
ital n plant nave been divided, we
shall nave accomplished the useful pur-
pose Of the statute.
Confiscation Not the Purpose Of the
Statute.
1t is not the purpose of the statute to
confiscate the property and capital Of the
offending trusts, Methods of punishment
by fine or imprisonment Of the individual
offenders, by fine of the corporation, or
Wy lOAlNlAulC u ia boONO 80
ton, are provided, but the proceeding in
equity is a specific remedy to stop the
operation of the trust by injunction and
prevent the future use Of the plant and
capital in violation of the statute.
I venture to say that not in the history
of American law has a decree more ef-
fective for such a purpose been entered
by a court than that against the Tobacco
trust.
C~ommon-Stock Ownership.
It has been assumed that the present
pro-rata and common ownership in all
these companies by former stockholders
Of the trust would insure a continuance
of the same old single control OF all the
companies into which the trust has by
decree been dlsintegrated. This Is err
roneous and Is based upon the assumed in
efficacy and in"nocuousness of judicial In
functions. The companies are enJoined
from cooperation or combination: they
nave different managers, directors, pur-
chasing and sales agents. If all or any
of the numerous stockholders, reaching
into the thousands, attempt to secure
concerted action of the companies with q
view to the control of the market, theii
number Is so large that such an attempt
could not we'll be concealed and Its prime
movers and all its participants would bt
at once subject to contempt proceedings
and Imprisonment of a summary charac
ter. The immediate result of the preSen
t situation will necessarily be activity by
all the companies under different man
ayers and then competition must follow
or there will be activity by one company
and stagnatlon by another. Only a shor
e. time will inevitably lead to a change II
| ownership OF the stock, as all oppor
J tunity for continued cooperation mus
disappear.
Movement for Repeal Of the Antl-Trus
Law.
But now that the antitrust act is seel
to be effective for the accomplishment o
the purpose of its enactment, we are me
: by a cry from many different quarter
e for its repeal. 1t Is said to be obstructiv
. Of business progress. to be an attempt t
restore old-fashloned methods of de
structive competition between small units
= and 10 make impossible those useful com
n binations Of capital and the reduction o
the cost of production that are e~ssentia
t to continued prosperity and norma
t growth.
r In the recent decisions the Suprem
= court makes clear that there is nothin
n in the statute which condemns combina
lions of capital or mere bigness of plan
- organized to secure economy in produo
+ ton and a reduction of It's cost. 1t Is onl
o when the purpose or necessary effect G
= the organization and maintenance of tn
s combination or the aggregation of I'm
r mense size are the sitting of competition
actual and potential, and the e%nhancin
4 of prices and establishing a monopoly
that the statute Is violated. Mere siz
n is no sin against the law. The mergin
OF two or more bushes plants necessaril
a eliminates competition between the unit
thus combined, but this elimination Is |
a contravention of the statute only whe
"a the combination is made for purpose {
n ending this particular competition in Oh
II der to secure control of, and enhanc'
If prices and create a monopoly.
Lack Of Definlteness In the Statute.
The complaint Is mad of the statut
y that 1t Is not sufficiently definite in Il
a description of that which Is forbidden,
a enable business men to avoid Its violt
ton. The suggestion Is, that we ms
N have a combination of two corporation
10 which may run on for ye'rs, and this
subsequently the attorney general ma
= conclude that it was a violation of IL
! statute, and that which was supposed b
, the combiners to be inocent then turf
out to be a combination in violation
l. the statute. Inc dHSWer 10 lllS Hyp'
!, thetical case is that when men atteml
"a to amass stupendous capital as will enab
,r them to suppress competition, contr
prices and establish a monopoly the
4 know the purpose Of their acts. Men (
" not do such a thing without having
>, clearly in mind.
ii New Remedies Suggested.
10 Much is said Of the repeal of this sta
ID ute and Of constructive legislation lntenl