The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-17
W|CKERSHAM WILL '. ACCEPT DECISION Will Not Appeal the Tobacco
 Trust Suit OFFICIAL STATEMENT 10 Satisfied That the Decree Entered Yesterday in New York
 Will Terminate the
 Monopoly
OFFICIAL STATEMENT

Washington, November dissatisfied that the decree entered in the circuit court at New York today providing for the disintegration of the American To- bacco company into IA corporations will terminate a monopoly, and substitute an equal competition instead, Attor- ney General Wickersham will not ap- peal the case to tho federal supreme court.
 He will accept the circuit courts de- cision, however, although the govern ment possesses a right to carry the plan of dissolution to the highest tri- bunal at any time within year.
 The governments approval of the plan was made known by the Attor- ney General in an official statement is- sued today.
 The size of some of the corporations into which the company will be sep arated constitutes no valid objection to the courts decree in the judgment of the Attorney General.
 "The public at large will be more apt to benefit" he declares, from com petition between a number of large solvent well organized companies in strong hands than from ths general demoralization of business which would ensue were the business to be distrib- uted between a large number of small weak organizations with insufficient capital to maintain themselves in &C., tive competition. Some of the repre- uentatives of the so called 'Independent Retailers association urged the distri- button of the business among 70 cor porations instead of 14. The sugges- tion might as well have been 50 or 200. For the government to have supported .ol, bQ Yt- doubtedly resulted in a receivership and enormous and widespread injury to the general business condition of the country"
 Regarding the contention which he said had been advanced that the size of the companies was greater than that of any of the existing independents, the Attorney General says:
 Nothing in the law requires or in the opinion of the Attorney General would justify the government in talk ing a position to reduce monopolistic combination to legalze the size, no one of the concerns being larger than the other.
 "The objection to the dissolution on the ground the shareholders would substantially control the separated companies are met first by conferring voting rights which now are vested in the common stock alone to the pre- IeTTeu SlOcknOlueTS also, dnQ secondly, by the restrictions upon the actions of the respective corporations
 The Attorney General believes" the statement continues, "that this plan with the restrictive provisions em- bodied in the decree, will accomplish a recreation of lawful conditions and. being so convinced, he has opposed the efforts of outsiders to inject them selves into the situation and to delay or prevent the carrying out of the plan." ysAalh sf1 do ,rtalss lir3 a oe
 Under the impression that the mean ing of the opinion of the court had been beclouded by the various discussions of 1t and was not generally understood the Attorney General embodied in his statement synopsis of the terms of the decree. ,
 He said it contained substantially all of the requests made by the govern ment except the enforced sale and dis tribution to outsiders. of the United Cigar Stores company and an author ization to the government at any time within five years. to apply to the court for relief based upon a showing that ! competitive conditions have not actual { ly resulted from the operations of the plan.