The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-01-02
FIGHT AGAINST TWO
! GREAT TRUSTS UP
/ TO HIGH COURT
Arguments Will Begin This Week in
Supreme Court in Gases To Dis
solve Standard Oil and Tobacco
Monopolies.
Remarkable Array of Legal Talent
Will Argue for Government
and Monopolies.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2.-The argu
ments which open tomorrow in the
United States supreme court in the
suit To dissolve the Standard oil trust
is the beginning of the last chapter
In the long fight against that monop
oily.
The present case must not be con
fused with the 29,000000 fine pro
ceedings. That was a criminal suit
Tor accepting rebates brought against
the Standard OIL Co. of Indiana. The
present case is a civil suit for dissolu
ton brought against the Standard OF
Co, OF New Jersey, under the sherman
antitrust act.
Prior TO 1906, there had been many
state attacl ; upon Standard oil similar
TO the Indiana case But ia June %
1906. President Roosevelt determined
10 start the first great national prose
cution OF the monopoly and named
Frank Il. Kellogg OF ST. Paul, and
Charles b. Morrison, of Chicago, as
special assistants to act with Milton d..
Purdy, assistant attorney general.
Charges Against Trust.
These men made a swift investiga-
tion of the trust, brought in an indict-
ment on which was based the present
suit. In their cursory speech. kellogg
and his assistants brought out the fol-
lowing accusations:
nat 80 per cent of the refined oil
used in the United States and export
ed from her shores was furnished by
the Standard Oil Co.-prima facie evil
dence of the existence of monopoly.
That as early as 1870, john d. Rock
efeller, William Rockefeller, H. H..
Rogers, Henry NJ. Flagler, John d.
Archbold, oliver II. Payne and Charles
NJ. Pratt came together in an agree.
Dlent designed TO suppress competi.
ton in the oil business.
That between 1870 and 1882 many
agreements were made with oil com
panies.
That by 1882 these seven men had
stock enough in oil companies 10 cor
troll the operation OF the industry. and
that competition had been suppressed.
That in 1892 the Ohio supreme court
decreed that the trusteeship of tho
seven men-the first trust in the
worlds modern sense-was an unlaw-
full combination.
K That as a result, in the years from
1882 to 1899, the seven, headed by
Rockefeller. pretending TO have &C
complished a dissolution Of the trust
were in reality operating as they had
before the Ohio decision
kE That in 1899 the Standard OIL Co. o
New Jersey, which had been pre-
viously organized, became a holding
company to evade the Ohio decision
the holding company acting the trus
tee of subsidiary stock instead of thu
original seven men.
That the New Jerseys company
stock was raised from $l0,000,000 u
$1OO,000,000, and that there was added
to the company's charter the CLAUSE
empowering it to buy and hold stoci
of subsidiary companies.
On this information the government
at the instance of former Attorney
4 General Moody filed suit against tn,
Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey, III
! seven owners and about seventy sub
sidiary concerns in the United State
circuit court at st. Louis, Nov. IL
1906 The government prayed tina
the trust be declared illegal and dis
solved, and that the subsidiary con