Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1911-12-07
TRUST PROBLEM
IS 1AFT'S IOnG
Message to Congress Devoted
to This One Matter.
DECISIONS ARE DEFENDED
Dissolution Plans Of Standard Oh and
Tobacco Standardization In
corporation and Commission
Recommended.

corporation and Commission
Recommended.
W4shinston.-Presiden Taft's annual
message, which was read In both houses
Of congress Tuesday, deals exclusively
With the antitrust statute. The message
Ia part IL a. follow:
To the Senate and House Of Represent
stives: This message 10 the first Of Sow
oral which I shall send to congress during
The interval between the opening of itS
regular session and its adjournment fos
Shs Christmas holidays. The amount q
Information to b communicated a. -
Che operations Of the government. the
Aumber Of important subjects calling for
comment by the executive, and the trans
mission to congress Of exhaustive r.
ports by special commissions, make it I'M
possible to include In one message Of .
reasonable length . discussion OF the top
1cs that ought to be brought to tho 1t-
4ention Of the national legislature at il
0rst regular session.
Decisions Of Supreme Court.
In May last the Supreme court handed
Gown decisions in the suits In equity
brought by the United States to entoi1
The further maintenance Of the standard
OH trust and of the American Tobacco
trust, and to secure their dissolution. The
decisions are epooh-making and serve to
advise the business world authoritativsly
Of the scope apd operation Of the anti
trust law Of 1890. The decisions do no4
depart In any substantial way from the
previous decisions Of the court in constru-
ing and applying this important statute,
but they clarity those important decision4
by further defining the already admitted
exceptions to the literal construction OF
the act. BY the DEGREES, they furnish .
useful precedent to the proper method
Of dealing with the capital and property
Of illegal trusts. These decisions sug-
eest the need and wisdom of additional
OF supplemental legislation to make h
easier for the entire business community
to square with the rule Of action and
legality thus finally established and 10
preserve the benefit. freedom and spur
OF reasonable competition without loss %
real efficiency or progress.
1t has been said that the court, by in
Producing into the construction Of the
statute common law distinctions, has
emasculated it. This IL obviously untrue.
BY Its Judgment every contract and COM
binatton in restraint of interstate trade
made with the purpose, or necessary e1-
feet of controlling prices by sitting COM
petition, or Of establishing in whole or In
part monopoly of such trade, is con-
demned by the statute. The most ex-
IRENE critics cannot instance case that
ought to be condemned under the statute
which is not brought within Its terms as
thus construed.
The suggestion is also made that the Su-
preme court by its decisions in the last
two cases has committed to the court the
underlined and unlimited discretion to de-
termine whether case Of restraint Of
trade is within the terms of the statute
This is wholly untrue. A reasonable re-
straint of trade at common law is we'll
understood and is clearly defined. 1t does
not rest in the discretion of the court. 1t
must be limited to accomplish the purpose
order that it shall be enforceable at all,
1t oust be incidental. If it exceeds the
needs of that contract it is void.
Methods of Dissolution.
In the Standard Oil case the Supreme
and circuit courts found the combination
to be monopoly of the interstate bust
ness of refining, transporting. and mar
keting petroleum and its products, effect
Cd and maintained through thirty
different corporations, the stock of which
was held by a New Jersey company. It
in effect commanded the dissolution Of
this combination, directed the transfer
and pro-rata distribution by the New Jer-
sey company Of the stock held by 1t in
the thirty-seven corporations to- and
among it's stockholders, and the corpora
lions and individual defendants were en-
Joined from conspirtng or combining to
restore such monopoly: and all agree
ments between the subsidiary corporations
tending to produce or bring about further
violations Of the act were enjoined.
In the Tobacco case, the court found
that the Individual defendants, twenty
nine in number, had been engaged in .
successful effort to acquire complete do
%lo 20 40,
of tobacco in this country
and abroad, and that this had been done
by combinations made with a purpose
and effect to stif1e competition, control
prices, and establish a monopoly, not
only in the manufacture of tobacco, but
also Of tin-foil and icorice, used in its
and Of it's products Of ci-
gars, cigarettes and snuffs. The tobacco
suit presentend a far more complicated
and difficult case than the Standard OIL
suit for a decree which would effectuato
the will of the court and end the VIOLA
ton Of the statute. There was here no
single holding company as in the case
of the Standard Oil trust The main com
pany was the American Tobacco COM
pany, manufacturing, selling and hold
ing company. The plan adopted to de-
stroy the combination and restore compe-
fftfon involved the redivision of the capt.
tai and plants Of the whole trust between
some Of the companies constituting tho
trust and new companies organized for
the purposes Of the decree and made par
ties to it, and numbering, new and old,
fourteen.
Purpose Not confiscation.
1t is not the purpose Of the statute 10
confiscate the property and capital of the
offending trusts. Methods Of punishment
by fine or imprisonment Of the Individual
Offenders. by dne of the corporation or
BY forfeiture Of its goods in Transported
don, are provided, but the proceeding In
equity is specific remedy to stop tho
operation Of the trust by Injunction ana
prevent the future use Of the plant ana
capital In violation of the statute. 8
venture to say that not in the history
vv00~~~~~~~
Did 40 He Wss Told.
A young Irishman from remots