Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-10-24
FIFTH TIME ATTEMPT Is MADE
IN COURTS TO BREAK UP
LUMBER TRUST.
NAMED AS DEFENDANTS
BILk OF COMPLAINT ALLEGES
MANY ACTS OF CONSPIRACY
IN LUMBER TRADE.
Similar Suits Now Pending in Other
States Against Other Associations
of Lumbermen-Govern ASKS
for Injuctons Preventing contin.
uance of Acts.
(Bv Associated Press.)

ST. PAUL. Oct. 24.-The govern
| ment's fifth suit in its fight to break
| up the so-called lumber trust was be-
! gun in the United States court here
today. The bill however was filed
by United States District Attorney
! Charles C. Houpt in Minneapolis
where most of the defendants reside.
II is directed against the North
west Lumbermen's association, the
Lumber Secretaries Bureau of lntor-
nation, an Illinois corporation already
under fire in another suit against the
trust brought in Colorado; Luke W.
Royce, owner Of a private detective
agency at Minneapolis, Num-, who IS
charged with spyig upon independent
lumber dealers who had the temerlty
to violate trade ethics laid down by
the alleged trust. and the Lumberman
Publishing company,a Minnesota cor
poration which issues the Mississippi
Valley Lumberman trade journal
which the government charges mas
been the organ of the trust in that
section.
Dlatt B. Walker of Minneapolis,
editor of the paper, is made defend
ant, as are the following as Icing
members, officers or directors in the
northwestern Lumbermen's assDcia-
ton:
w. R. Wood, Parker, S. D.; Charles
Webster. Waucoma, Ia; Willard =.
Hollis, Minneapolis, Mimi; George r.
Thompson, Minneapolis; c. M. Por-
ter. Oskaloosa, Ia; E. G. Finn, Mil
neapolis; O. NJ. Botsford, Winona,
Mimi; W. H. Davy. Jr, Dubuque, Ia;
NJ. T. Mcmahon, Fergus Falls, MINI
C. A. Finkbine, Des Moines, Ia; and
job w. Barry, Cedar Rapids, la.
AS in similar suits now pending
against the Eastern States Retail
Lumber Dealers association, the Mich
igan Retail Lumber Dealers associa.
ton, the Colorado & Wyoming Lurn>
Der Dealers association and the Lu1n-
Der Secretaries Bureau of Information
IA members of the latter organiza-
ton being under criminal indictments
charging violations of the Sherman
antitrust law, the government al
legged that the lumber trade has been
restrained by illegal
agreements and understandings which
prevent the consumer from buying of
whom and where he will; which abso'
lutely forbid competition for trade
and which have divided the country
into non-competitive territories. 1t is
also alleged that the names of lum-
bermen who have violated the eth
les" have been published to the trade
in the Mississippi Valley Lumber
man.
The bill alleges many acts in pur-
suance to an alleged conspiracy COW
ering several years and that some Of
them were perpetrated and in form
ceased several years ago, but each
act is alleged to have been part Of a
carefully devised plan by which first
one restriction and then another was
fastened upon the lumber trade and
when once fixed was to all appear
ance abandoned and substituted with
one less Ubiquitous. The theory of
the bill is that while no one of the
acts performed now might
be taken as a violation of the law
when considered alone, they are bu.
a part of a general plan and that by
the alleged continuing conspiracy"
an apparently harmless act is now IL. :
rectly contributory to the original
scheme of restriction and OPPRESSION of
which the government complains.
The bill relates in great detail thu !
governments allegations that dealers
who insisted upon selling to whom
ever they pleased were constantly |
under the surveillance of the defend.
ant Boyce and his electives, who re-
ported all irregular business" 20 |
their employers-the Northwestern
Lumbermen's association; that the re-
ports of such espionage were SEM to !;
the Lumber Secretaries Bureau of In |
through which they were
sent to the twenty or more Territorial
of the so-called trust in !
addition to being published in the
Mississippi Valley Lumberman.
The government asks injunctions
restraining all the defendants from
the acts of which COM
plant is made. The suit is in direct |
charge Of Clark McKerchner, special
assistant to Attorney General Wick
ersham. who has directed the govern +,
nientS fight against the alleged truSt !