Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1911-10-26
BUSINESS
INTERESTS
Investigation Of Several Of the
Big Companies Under
Progress.
NO TRUST IS THE REPORT
Il ~ 7'"'
Standard Oil Co. is Rapidly Being
Divided into Small
Companies.
NO TRUST IS THE REPORT

Washington, D. e. Oct. 2G.-The
antics of the American Tobacco Com
pany are being carefully watched by
the Department of Justice, and there
seems no proba ability that the eagle
eye" of Attorney General Wickersham
will fail to detect any concealed loop
holes in the arrangements of the Of
ficials of the tobacco trust to evade
the mandates of the greatest court ii
America. There is no concealing the
fact that chaos reigns in the affairs
OF the Princes of Nicotine, and with
a skill that would honor the greatest
Magic of Persia, the juggling game
has been carried on. But no feasible
plan has been brought forward for
dissolution, and it is doubtful if the
order of the Supreme Court will be
carried out without resulting in fur
ther legal complications and conse-
quent litigation. The difficulty is
that the American Tobacco Company
is in a large measure the result Of
magnificent" high financing, and in
an adjustment of ownership the hold
ers of common stock and preferred
stock must be considered. Likewise
there are bond-holders, and every con-
ceivable kind Of oWnership-and in a
show down such as that Of the present
instance, it seems quite impossible to
care for every interest without a good
deal of df@1es The Company is
evidently <endeavoring to maintain
all its old powers, and this attempt
will not be tolerated by the govern
ment. Perchance there may be a Sc
quel to the tobacco trust story, fully
as important to the American public
and our policies of government, as
was the original case.
American Sugar Investigations.
When Congress provided for an in
vestigation of the so-called Sugar
Trust, it delegated the task to a COM
of which was made up of class whose
chief occupation for several years has
been to foment public feeling, and to
impress upon the public minds the
evils of the trusts. To prove that the
sugar trust interests were the worst
offenders, the committee decided to
,f1r fc ND i,,
vestigators, who would build case so
strong that Congress would be compel
led to recognize the splendid service of
it's members to whom had been en-
trusted the great task of busting the
great trust that had come into disre-
pute through criminal manipulations
of weights. There was gloom, how
ever, in the ranks Of the Committee
men few days ago, when the country
Il was flooded with the news that the ac-
countants and experts, employed by
the Committee, had reported to the
Congressman that there is no trust.''
Evidently the newspaper scare-heads
gressmen as to what their employees
had been about, and while New York
and Washington Immediately per
ceiyed that an attempt had been made
to put one over" on the Committee,
{ yet as a matter of fact it is perhaps
fortunate that the experts" told their
story so early in the day, as it will
likely result in the congressman CIV.
ing more careful personal attention
to affairs concerning sugar, or who.
ever it may have been, that attempt.
ed to convey the impression to the
country that a Committee of Congress
has found that there was no sugar
+ trust. Attempts have been persistent
ly made from Wall street to show that
the recent rise in sugar was due to
+ a shortage in sugar crops, and for
= eign mani pulations of the market. The
American. sugar interests, according
4 to- several chapters of press reports
that have flooded the country, have
been entirely innocent. They pro
test, and profess, as e1nphatically as
in the days when the government
was engaged in sending their officials
& of to jail \
Continued on Page u.