The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-12-06
President Taft Gives His Views ON Solution Of the Tru

Include within Its inhibition certain
| contractual restraints OF trade which 1t
demonstrated as incidental or as in
direct.
These cases of restraint of trade
that the court excepted from the opcr-
alton of the statute where instances
which, as common law. would have
/ been called reasonable. In the stand
ara OH and Tobacco cases, therefore,
the court merely adopted the tests Of
! the common law. ana in defining ex-
: ceptions to the literal application OF
:he statute. only substituted for the
test OF being Incidental or indirect,
mat OF being reasonable. and this.
without varying in the slightest the
actual scope and effect of the statute.
/ IN other words, all the cases under
| me statute which hasc now been de-
cidcd would have been decided the
| same way II the court had originally
accepted In It's construction the rule
at common law.
II has been said that the court, by
introducing into the construction of
the statute common-law distinctions,
has cmasculated 1t. This is obviously
untrue. BY its Judgment every con-
| tract ana combination IN restraint of
! interstate trade made with the purpose
or necessary effect OF controlling
prices by sitting competition. or of
establishing In whole or in part Il mo-
| nopoly of such trade. is condemned by
the statute The most extreme critics
cannot instance "a case that ought to
| nc condemned under the statute which
| thus construed
The suggestion is also made that the
supreme Court by It's decision In the
court the underlined and unlimited dis
erection to determine whether n case OF
| restraint OF trade Is within the terms
| of the statute This is wholly untrue
! reasonable restraint of trade at COM
mon law is we'll understood and is
| clearly defined. 1t does not rest in tho
discretion OF the court. 1t must DO
a lawful main contract to which. in
order that II shall be enforced BILE at
all. 1T must be incidental. If 1t exceed
the needs of that contract. it Is void.
The test of reasonableness. was new
! cr applied by the court 1T common law
to contracts or combinations or con-
splracics in restraint OF trade whose
purpose was or whose necessary effect
would be TO stihc competition. 10 con-
troll prices. or establish monopolies.
The courts never assumed power To
say that such contracts or comblna-
| lions or conspiracies might he lawful
If the parties to them were only moder-
ate In the use of the power thus Sc
cured and did not exact from the pub
| lie 100 great and exorbitant prices 1t
| is true that many theorists. and others
engaged in business violating the sta
tutc, nave hoped that some such line
could be drawn By courts; but no court
OF authority has ever attempted 1t.
Certainly there, Is nothing in the deci-
sipns Of the latest two cases from
| which such dangerous theory OF
! judicial discretion in enforcing this
statute can derive the slightest sane.
ton.
! Force and Effectiveness of Statute
Matter OF Growth.
We have been twenty one years max
| ing this statute effective for the pur-
poses Tor which j. Was enacted The
secmcd to remit TO the States the
whole available power TO attack and
suppress the evils of the trusts.
n n ntsrn hn zSF tl,.
| Judgment was corrected. and only In
| the last three or four years has tho
heavy hand OF the law been laid upon
| the great Illegal combinations that
| intnion over many OF our Industries.
Criminal prosecutions have been
brought and number are pending,
but iurics have felt avcrse TO convict
| Ing for jail sentences. and judges have
been most reluctant to impose such
| sentences on men of respectable stand
| Ing IN society whose onense has been
| regarded as merely statutory. still, as
! the oTcnse becomes better understood
and the committing Of 1t partakes more
| Of studied and deliberate defiance of
| the law, we can bc confident that juries
! viii convict individuals and that Jail
| sentences will be imposed.
The Remedy I'm Equity by DIssoIutIon
| In the Standard Oil case the Supreme
and Circuit Courts found the combina-
ion TO be monopoly % The Inter
state business of refining, transport
ing. and marketing petroleum and its
! products, effected and maintained
through thirty-scven different corpora
lions. the stock OF which was held by
n New Jersey company. tin effect COM
manded the dissolution of this combina-
ton, directed the transfer and pro
rata distribution BY the New Jersey
company of the stock held by it in the
thiriy-seven corporations to and
among Its stockholders: and the cor
| porat!ons and individual defendants
were cnjoincd from conspiring or com
Gn.>f,
all agreements between the subsidiary
corporations tending to produce or
bring about further violation OF the
act were enjoined.
In the Tobacco case. the court found
that the individual defendants, twenty
, nine in number. had been engaged i'm a
dominion over the manufacture. sale.
and distribution OF tobacco In this
country and abroad: and that this had
a purpose and effect to stihe competi-
ton. control prices, and establish a
monopoly. not only In the manufnc-
lure OF tobacco. but also of tinfoil and
licorice used in its manufacture and of
| Its products of cigars, cigarettes and
suuffs. The tobacco suit presented a
Tar more complicated and difficult case
cree which would effectuate the Will OF
! the court and end the violation of the
! statute. There was here no single
Standard Oil Trust The main u CONF lne
pany was the American Tobacco Com
pany, manufacturing. selling and
holding company. The plan adonted to
i destroy the combination and restore
competition involved the redivision of
the capital and plants of the whole
trust between some of the companies
constituting the trust and new com
| panies organized for the purposes of
the decree and made parties to ii. and
numbering. new and old. fourteen.
Situation After Reimbursement.
l mn tnnyx -
! (old). readjusted capital, $4,000, 900:
the Llggett & Meyers Tobacco Com
panX new), capital. sGn000.000: the p.
| Lorillard Company (new), capital Sl7,-
| 00o.0 900: and the r. j. Reynolds Tobac-
co Company (old), capital, S7.525 900,
| are chiefly engaged in the manufactures
and sale of chewing and smoking to-
bacco and cigars. The former one tin