Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1911-12-06


a reasonable restraint of trade at OH
mon law is well understood and is
clearly defined 1t does not rest in the
discretion of the court. 1t must be
limited to accomplish the purpose OF ii
lawful main contract to which III order
that it shall be enforceable at all il
must be incidental. If it exceed the
needs Of that contract it is void.
The test of reaSOnableneSs was never
applied by the court at cOmman law
to contracts or combinations or con
spiracies in restraint of trade whose
purpose was or whose necessary effect
would be to stifle competition. to con
troll prices or establish mOnOpolies
The courts never assumed power to
say that such contracts or combina-
| lions or conspiracies might be lawful
if the parties to them were only mod
crate in the use of the power thus Sc
cured and did not exact from the pub
lie too great and eXorbitant. prices. It
is true that many theorists and others
engaged in business violating the stat
ute have hoped that some such line
| could be drawn by courts, but no court
of authority has ever attempted it
Certainly there is nothing in the deci-
sions Of the latest two, cases from
which such q dangerous theory of sju
dicial discretion in enforcing this stat
ute can derive the slightest sanction.
Force and Effectiveness of Statute a.
Matter of Growth.
We have been twenty -One years MAX
ing this statute effective for the pur
poses for which it was enacted. The
Knight case was diScOuraging and
seemed to remit to the states the whole
available power to attack and suppress
| the evils of the trusts. Slowly. hOwev>
er. the error of that judgment was cor
rected. and only in the last three or
| four years has the heavy hand of the
| law been laid upon the great illegal
combinations that have exercised such
an absolute dominion over many of our
! industries. Criminal prosecutions have
| been brought, and number are pend
| ing, but jurieS have felt aVerSe to con
| victing for jail sentences and judges
have been most reluctant to impose
|
staAding in society whose offense has
been regarded as merely statutQES
| Still, as the offense becomes better un
derstood and the committing Of 1t par
takes more of studied and deliberate
defiance Of the law we can be conf
dent that juries will convict individu-
ais and that jail sentences will be i'm
posed.
The Remedy In Equity by Dissolution.
In the Standard Oil case the supreme
and circuit courts found the combina
ton to be a monopoly of the interstate
business of refining. transporting and
marketing petroleum and its products.
effected and maintained through thir-
ty-seven different corporations. the
stock of which was held by a New. Jer
sey company. 1t in effect commanded
the dissolution of this combination. di-
rected the transfer and pro rata d.stri-
button by the New Jersey company OF
the stock held by it in the thirty
corporations to and among sits stock
holders, and the corporations and indi-
vidual defendants were enj0ined from
conspiring or combining to restore
such monopoly, and all agreements be
tween the subsidiary corporations tend,
| ing to produce or bring about further
violations Of the act were enjoined.
In the tobacco case the court found
that the individual defendants. TWEEN
ty-nine in number. had been engaged
in a successful effort to acquire COM
plete dominion over the manufacture
sale and distribution of tobacco in this
country and abroad and that this had
been done by combinations made with
purpose and effect to sti1e cOmpet1-
ton, control prices and establish
monopoly, not only in the manufacture
Of tobacco, but also Of tin foil and lie
orice used in it's manufacture and OF
its products of cigars, cigarettes and
snuffs. The tobacco suit presented a
far more complicated and difficult case
than the Standard Oil suit for decree
which would effectuate the will of the
court and end the violation of the stat
ute. There was here no single hold
ing company, as in the case OF the
Standard Oil trust. The main company
was the American Tobacco company.
a manufacturing selling and holding
company. The plan adopted to de
stroy the combination and restore com
petition involved the redivision of the
capital and plants of the whole trust
between some of the companies con-
shutting the trust and new companies
organized for the purposes of the de-
cree and made parties to it and num-
boring, new and old. fourteen.
Situation After Readiustment.
The American Tobacco company
(old), readjusted capital $92.OOOOOO;
the Liggett & Meyers Tobacco company
new, capital $67 100000; the P. Loril-
lard company new, capital $4,000
600. and the r. ]. Reynolds Tobacco
company (oid,. capital $7,525,OOO. are
chiefly engaged in the manufacture
and sale of chewing and smoking to-
bacco and cigars. The former one tin