The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-16
Six Months Time Given Big Corporation To Quit
 Business DECISION RENDERED BY CHIEF JUSTICE Section of Opinion Calling for "Rule of Reason'' Is Regarded as Submission to Prayers of
 Business World

Washington, May 15.-The Standard Oi' company of New Jersey and it's 19 subsi- diary corporations were declared today py the supreme court of the United states to be a conspiracy and combination In restraint of trade, It also was held to be n1onopolizing interstate commerce in violation of the Sherman antitrust law. The dissolution of the combination was ordered to take place within six months.
 Thus ended the tremendous struggle or years on the part of the government to put down by authority of law combina- ton which It claimed was a menace to the industrial and economic advancement of the entire country.
 At the same time the court interpreted the sherman antitrust law so as to limit its application to acts of undue" re- straint of trade and not every restraint of trade. It was on this point that the only discordant note was heard in the court. Justice Harlan dissented claim ing that cases already decided by tho court had determined once for all that the word "undue' or unreasonable" or similar words, were not in the statute. He declared that the reasoning of the court in arriving at its finding was in eff feet legislation which belonged in every instance to Congress and not to the courts
 Ever since the decree in this case in the lower court, the United States circuit court for the eastern district Of Missouri, was announced, hope has been expressed by the business world" that the law would be modified so as not to interfere with what was designated as honest busi-i ness. Tonight that section of the opinion calling for the use of the rule of req son. in applying the law Is regarded in many quarters as an answer to the pray xers of the business world. White Announces Opinion
 The opinion of the court was announced by Chief Justice White. In printed form it contained more than 10000 words. For nearly an hour the chief justice discussed the case from the bench. going over most of the points in the printed opinion, but not once referring to it In order to refresh his memory. Before him sgt distin- gushed audience of the most famous men of the country. Senators and representa- lives left their respective chambers in the capital to listen to the epoch-making de- cision of the court. Most eager to hear were Attorney General Wickersham and Frank B. Kellogg, special counsel of the government, who had conducted the great ot1
 None of the brilliant array of counsel of the corporations or individual defend- ants was present in the court during the reading of the opinion. Today, as on pre-. vious decision days for months past, rival broker agents with messengers in line to the various telephone and telegraph in struments throughout the capital were on hand, but to their dismay the an- nouncement of the decision was not be- gun until an hour after the closing or the stock markets.
 Many expected that the decision of the jcourt in the dissolution suit against the ltobacco corporations would be handed Idown immediately after the decision in the Standard oil case. This was not done, however, but the decision is expected on May 23 the last decision day of the cour, until next October.
 1 The opinion of the court today was con strued to mean that the tobacco case, like every other case in which rcstraints of trade are alleged, must be subjected 10 the new test of reasonableness of the restraint, as laid down in the Standard oil decision
 By far the greater portion of the opin- ion of the chief justice was devoted to the Justification cf the court in requiring that the rule of reason'' be applied to restraint by trade before they were held to be violations cf the Sherman anti trust law. The count found this justifica- tion in the common law of the forefatnefs and in the general law of the country at the time the Sherman antitrust law was passed In short, the court held that the technical words of the statute were to be given the meaning which those words had in common law and in the laws or the country at the time of the enactment. This meaning of the words, according to the court. called for the exercise of req son in demonstrating Ia what restraints in trade were prohibited
 White Reviews Case
 Chief Justice White, in his opinion, first reviewed the preliminary proceedings on the case in the circuit court of the United States for the eastern district of Missouri He re-statcd the essential points in the bill of the government asking for the dis )eolution of the standard oil and, the an swer. questioning the jurisdiction of the court and denying the claims of the gov ernment He dismissed the objection tc the jurisdiction In a few words by holding that it was not well founded. He ther came to the arguments as to the law and tine facts in the case, saying that out o tlRe Jungle" of law and facts, both sides wAere agreed only In one thing and tha wlas that the determination of the con trIpversy rested upon the proper construc tistn and application of the first and sec. eJnd sections of the antitrust acts. The eviews of the two sides as to the law the lchief justice said were as wide apart al t,be poles The same. he said was true as3 to the facts.
 t.Thus, on the one hand with relentless peirtinacy and minuteness of analysis' said ' the. chief Justice. Tit is insisted that the facts established that the assailed comb. Nnetion took its birth in purpose tc unlaY fully acquire wealth by expressing tbe ublic and destroying the just rightf of otf hers and that its entire career exenl. plifies ah inexorable carrying out of such
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