Evening star., 1911-05-28

the existence Of the tobacco combination
new enterprises have thriven. the price
OF leaf tobacco has generally increased.
10000 additional acres have been devoted
to tobacco crops and new markets have
been developed in India, China and else
where.
Judge Ward said the defendants had
no intention Of doing wrong. Judge Noyes
stated that the record in the case was
remarkably free from acts of oppression
and coercion on the part Of the defend
ants. and Judge Coke held that many Of
the associated corporations were not CO.
creed into joining the combination, but
entered Of their own volition.
:
In view of the favorable comments just
mentioned. why did three Of the four
judges of the United States circuit court
in New York find the defendant combina-
tion guilty as charged? Because they
believed that the tobacco trust had the
power to be oppressive and to directly
restrain interstate commerce wherever
the directors Of the trust took a notion
so to do: and that, as a matter OF fact,
there was some such restraint, no mat
ter how good their intentions were not
to do SO.
Judge Noyes said:
a
could successfully engage In the manu-
facture Of tobacco would depend entirely
upon the position taken by the defend
ants. They might suffer him to sue
ceed. On the other hand, they might
deem 1t expedient to crush him. and If
they exercised the power they possessed
there could be but one resu... There Is
enough In the record to show how COM
petitor can be brought to terms II occa-
sion demands. The letters between the
defendants officials point out most eff
fective means for entering upon vigor-
our campaign. to be kept up until the
desired end Is accomplished"
While Chief Justice White, in the recent
oil decision did not say that a monopoly
In itself was illegal, he did say that
monopolies which directly restrained In
terstate trade were illegal. even though
such restraint were not planned or in
tended. The Chief Justice did not over
rule the principle laid down by the Su-
preme Court In 1897 in the Freight Asso-
tiation case. which point was contended
for by Gov. Harmon of Ohio when he
was Attorney General of the United
States. That point is very important to
the people, and 1t is this: Trusts cannot
escape answering for violation Of the
Sherman law simply because they can
show that their arrangements or agree
ments to combine are reasonable and
benefcent. II, at the same time, the re-
suits of those arrangements or agree
directly restrain interstate trade
It is to be remembered that one Of the
provisions in the decree by the United
States circuit court Of New York against
the tobacco combination was that II any
OF the defendants in that combination
could show the restoration of reasonably
competitive conditions, such defendant
might apply to said circuit court for a
suspension or dissolution of
the injunction.
The tobacco combination Indignantly
appealed to the Supreme Court of the
United States. Perhaps, after reading
some Of the don'ts" handed to the oil
trust by the Chief Justice. the tobacco
trust wished 1t had apologized to Festus
instead OF appealing to Caesar
Judging from the above-quoted state
ments of some of the United States cir
cult courts judges who found the tobacco
combination guilty. we must believe. even
II we didn't hear 1t elsewhere, that the
American Tobacco Company is clearly a
Moreover. one gets the idea
that neither is 1t such good trust as 1t
would have folks believe. Take up some
of the doings of bad trust that the
Chief Justice mentions in the oil case, and
see sect! II some of them apn't Mt the to0eaco
First. Acts and dea .igs showing the in-
tent to drive OF competitors and to ex-