The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-05-16
bpreme Court Decision is Issued
Declaring the Gigantic Com
pany to be a
Monopoly.
x MONTHS GIVEN
ew Jersey Corporation and Its Nine.
teen Subsidiaries Declared a Con-
spracy and Malicious
Combine.


ard Oil Company of New Jersey is
monopoly in restraint OF trade. op-
rating in violation OF the terms of
he Sherman antitrust law and must
Q dissolved
This is the opinion and the order OF
he supreme court of the United
tates in the greatest case ever de-
kided before any tribunal in the world.
Six months time Is given the gi-
santic trust to dissolve and restore
10 the thirty-three auxiliary companies
Ehich are component parts of the
trust their individual identities as
Corporations, com panies, partnerships
pr individuals. The decree of the low
pr court gave only thirty days. but
Chief Justice White in delivering the
bpinion Of the court thought that in
view of the magnitude of the organiza-
ion six months was fairer.
Associate Justice Harlan, who Join
FED in the decision, delivered sepa-
|ra;e statement in which he declared
ne could see no ground for the reason
Rng of the majority of the court which,
he claimed went beyond its province,
IthS that 1t discussed the question of
yre sonable and unreasonable combina-
tonss his point being that this was
reclsely what the trusts have been
tryingsto get congress to legislate up
on Tor years, while congress had re-
peatedly refused to recognize any de-
gree in a combination Justice Harlan
lheld that it makes no difference
#whether combination is reasonable
or unreasonable, but so long as it is
monopoly in restraint of interstate
commerce 1t should be declared lille
gal.
The decision rendered directly af-
iects the biggest business combine in
the United States, and indirectly, near.
~ hundred other business combines,
modelled on the same lines.
1t Is the culmintion OF legal hat.
lie which has been fought all over
.he country for four and half years
Attorney General Wickersham declar.
ed IT to be perhaps the most impor
eant case ever taken before the high
est court
The case had its inception in the
ming Of bill of complaint in Novem
per' 1906, before the circuit court for
the eastern district of Missouri
against l4S corporations and seven In
olViduals, on the ground that they
were combination in restraint OF
1rade' and therefore violating the
sherman antitrust law. John D. Rock
leiler' VIM. G. Rockefeller, Henry H
nogefs' Henry M. Flagler. Oliver H
Fayne and Charles II. Pratt were
among the individuals made defend
ants by the suit.
For nearly two years prior to the
ming OF the suit government agents
naa been gathering evidence all over
,ne country, The bill of complaint
embodied much of this evidence. II
covers 22o closely printed pages, ant
pulpolted to give history of the
sroWth Of the oil trust" from its in
ception in 1876.
me ISSUES in the case were of such
magnitude, and the resume" of facts
expected to be proved by the govern
n'ent so voluminous that the cour
eppolnted a master to take the testi
nohy' Over two years ives spent II
'nis task. Witnesses were examined
ai over the country. Frank b. Kel
iogs was the governments attorney
ana opposing him was Moritz Rosen
.hai' who was reputed to have beer
paid $1,000 for every day he appeared
y court There were four or five 9th
or legal assistants
AT the actual trial before the circui
court the trust was represented b,
soan 9. Johnson, of Philadelphia, ant
'onn G. Milburn, OF New York, tw,
" the greatest corporation attorney,
- me country. Kellogg argued in be
nan OF the government.
on November 20, 1909, the court sus
'aihed practically every contention
MADE by the government, adjudged tn,
eon'pine a trust in restraint of trade
aud reading the Sherman law broadly
o.uered the absolute dissolution o
=