Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-12-05

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Drposs a. lawful znaia osas1aes -
watch. n eeder that Il shall - -
forcsabls ct IN, II must b imos6sneal
II II exceeds the needs Of that contract
Il 10 void.
The test OF reasonableness was
never applied By the court at COM
mon-law to contracts or combinations
or conspiracies In restraint of trade
whose purpose was or whose neces-
sary effect would BE- to stifie competi-
ton. to control prices. or establish
monopolies. The courts never az
sumed power to say that such con.
tracts or combinations or conspira.
cies might b lawful IL the parties to
them were only moderate In the use
Of the power thus secured and did
not exact from the public too great
and exorbitant prices. It II true
that many theorists. and others on
gagged in business violating the
statue, have hoped that some such
line could be drawn by courts: but
no court Of authority has ever at
tempted IL Certainly there 10 moth
ing in the decisions Of the latest two
cases which should be . dangerous
theory Of judicial discretion in en-
forcing this statue can derive the
slightest sanction.
Force and Effectiveness Of Statute .
Matter Of Growth.
We have been twenty-ons years
making this statue effective for tho
purposes 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 tho trusts.
Slowly. however. the errors Of that
judgment was corrected. 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 do
minion over many Of our industries.
Criminal prosecutions have been
brought and a number are pending.
but juries have felt averse to convict
ing for jail sentences. and Judges have
been most reluctant to impose such SEN
fences on men Of respectable standing
in society whose onense has been
regarded a. merely statutory. Sun.
Is the offense becomes better under
stood and tho committing OF It par
takes more of studied and deliberate
defiance Of tho law. We can be conf
dent that juries will convict individ-
uals and that jail sentences viii be
imposed.
The Remedy In Equity BY Dissolution.
In the Standard Oil case tho SUI
preme and circuit courts found the
combination to be monopoly Of the
interstate business Of refining. trans
porting. and marketing petroleum and
its products. effected and maintained
through thirty-seven different cor
porations, the stock Of which was
held by New Jersey company. II
in effect commanded the dissolution
Of this combination, directed the
transfer and pro-rata distribution BY
the New Jersey company of the
stock held by It in the thirty-seven
corporations to and among its stock
holders. and the corporations and In
dividual defendants were enjoined
from conspiring or combining to re-
store such monopoly: and all agree
ments between the subsidiary corpor-
atoms tending to produce or bring
about further violations of the act
were enjoined.
IN the Tobacco case, the court
found that the Individual defendants,
twenty-nins in number. had been en-
gagged in successful effort to &C.
quire complete dominion over the
manufacture. sale. and distribution of
tobacco In this country and abroad.
and that this had been done by COM
binations made with purpose and
effect to stihe competition. control
prices. and establish monopoly. not
only in the manufacture Of tobacco,
but also Of tin-foil and Iicorice used
in Its manufacture ana of its products
Of cigars. cigarettes. and snuf1s. The
tobacco suit presented a far more
complicated and dimcult case than
the Standard OIL suit for decree
which you'd eSectuate the viii IT the
court and end the violation Of the
statute There was here no single
holding company AZ in the case Of
the Standard OIL trust. The main
company was the American Tobacco
company. manufacturing, selling
and holding company. The plan
adopted to destroy the combination
and restore competition involved the
redivision of the capital and plant.
of the whole trust between some o,
tho companies constituting the trus,
and new companies organized for the
purposes of the decree and made
parties to 1t, and numbering. new and