The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1911-05-31

Trust decision is characterized by
Attorney General Wickcrsham as a
most comprehensive and sweeping
victory for the Government.
The Trust is held 10 be a combina
ton in restraint Of trade--a monop-
oy in violation of the law.
The decision affects 81 American
corporations, two English corpora
tions and 20 individual defendants.
I, at the end of six or eight
months, the corporations fail u
bring themselves within the law, a
! receivership and dissolution by court
! DEGREES will follow.
The Trust is held to have been
guilty Of intimidatine. and clearly TO
have shown a purpose to, stihe com
| petition.
Chief Jusic White announced the
decision, which was practically un-
| animoUs, although Justice Harlan dis
sented On several points.
| AS in the Standard Oh case. Justice
Harlan resents the anplica ion of the
rule of reason" to the sherman anti
trust law.
| The court having held the defend
ant corporation guilty Of conscious
wrong doing, Justice Harlan is not
at all anxious to perpetuate any new
combination growing out Of them.
Washington, May 20.-The Govern
ment today won sweeping victory
over the Tobacco Trust" when the
Supreme Court held the American
Tobacco company and it's allied COR
porations to be operating in violation
Of the Sherman antitrust law.
BY directing that the combination
be forbidden the privilege Of Inter-
State commerce or be placed in the
hands Of a receiver unless it disinte-
CRATES in harmony with the law with
in six, or at the most, eight months
the Court is regarded to have dealt
with the obacco corporations more
drastically than with the Standard
Oil Company Of New Jersey, whose
dissolution was ordered two weeks
aso.
Both the first and second sections
! oi the Shp;u, n antitrust .aW have
/ been violated oy the so-caIled Tytae-
60 T~Ust, according - tie Court Not
only has it, in the eyes Of the Court
restrained wrongfully and unlawfully
tempted to monopolize the tobacco
business to the injury of the public
and of its competitors.
While the decree was regarded as
unusually severe, at the same time
there was a touch of leniency in not
making the combination an outlaw
now" The various elements IF the
| combinations are to be given an op-
| portunity, under the supervision of
|
the Southern district Of New York,
Of recreation 50 that there may be
brought about "a new condition
which shall be honestly in harmony
With. and not repugnant to, the law"
The opinion of the Court was an
nounced by Chief Justice White, who
also delivered the opinion Of the
| Cour1 in the Standard Oil case.
The entire Court agreed that the
American Tobacco Company violated
the Sherman antitrust law, but AS
sociate Justice Harlan dissented from
the repeated Interpretation of the
Sherman antitrust law so as to call
for the application of the rule of
reason in determining what re-
straints of trade were forbidden by
the Act. In this respect the division
OF the Court was the same as in the
standard Oil case. Justice Harlan al
so took issue with the rest of the
Court as to the reorganization Of the
tobacco company, saying that he had
found nothing in the record which
made him lat all anxious to perpe-
| tuate any new combinations among
the companies which the Court con-
| ceded at all times exhibited a con-
scious wrong doing"
The Court reiterated its determin-
alton to follow the rules of reason
In determining what restraints OF
trade violate the Sherman antitrust
law. Chief Justice White explained
at length the decision OF the Court
In the Standard Oil case, but did not
qualify the reasoning in that case so
as to harmonize it in any particular