The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1911-12-08
DEFENDS DECISIONS OF COURT
In Cases of Standard Oil and
Tobacco Companies.
THINKS amendments NEEDED
Believes Present Statutes Good az Far
AZ They Go but Suggests Supple
mental LegIsIatIon--For Fed
eral Corporation Law.


Sounding the. administration pr
gram, particularly campaig
against the trusts, President Taft
Tuesday sent his message to co,
gress.
The president referred TO the su
cess of the government in the StanC
ard oil and tobacco trust cases, ur
er the curbing of the trusts and &
amendment of the Sherman ami
trust law and criminal prosecute
and Jail sentences for violators.
The message in full is as follow
To the Senate and House of Re
resentatives: This messag pc ie the 3
of several which l shall send to con-
gress during the interval between the
opening of its regular session and it's
adjournment for the Christmas holi-
days. The amount of information to be
communicated as to the operations of
the government, the number of impog-
tant subjects calling for comment by
the executive, and the transmission to
congress OF exhaustive reports by spe-
scial commissions, make it impossible
to include In one message of a reason
able length discussion of the topics
that ought to be brought to the atten-
ton Of the national legislature at its
first regular session.
Tho Antitrust law-The Supreme
Court Decisions.
In May last the Supreme court hand
ed down decisions in the suits in
equity brought by the United States to
enjoin the further maintenance Of the
Standard Oil trust and of the Ameri-
can Tobacco trust, and to secure their
dissolution. The decisions are epoch
making and serve to advise the bust.
nsss world authoritatively of the scope
and operation of the antitrust act of
1890. The decisions do not depart in
any substantial way from the previous
decisions of the court in constituting
and applying this important statute,
but they clarity those important deci-
sions by further defining the already
admitted exceptions to the literal con-
struction Of the act. BY the DEGREES,
they furnish useful precedent as to
the proper method of dealing with the
capital and property of illegal trusts.
These decisions suggest the need and
wisdom Of additional or supplemental
legislation to make 1t easier for the
entire business community to square
| with the rule of action and legality
thus finally established and to preserve
the benefit, freedom and spur of rea-
sonable competition without loss of
real efficiency or progress.
No Change In the Rule Of Decision
Merely In Its Form of Expression.
The statute in It's first section de-
clares to be illegal every contract,
! combination In the form of trust or
otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint
Of trade or commerce among the sew
eral states or with foreign nations"
and In the second, declares guilty of a
| misdemeanor every person who shall
monopolize or attempt to monopolize
or combine or conspire with any other
person to monopolize any part of the
trade or commerce of the several
states or with foreign nations"
| In two early cases, where the statute
was invoked to enjoin transportation
| agreement between interstate railroad
companies, It was held that 1t was no
defense to show that the agreement as
to rates complained of was reasonal
at common law, because II was said
that the statute was directed against
all contracts and combinations in re-
straint of trade whether reasonal at
common law or not. 1t was plain from
the record, however that the contracts
complained of In those cases would
not have been deemed reasonable at
common law. In subsequent cases the
court said that the statute should be
given a reasonal construction and re-
fused to include within its inhibition
certain contractual restraints of trade
which 1t dominated as incidental or az
indirect.
These cases of restraint of trade that
the court excepted from the operation
of the statute we're instances which, al
common law, would have been called
reasonable. In the Standard Oil and
Tobacco cases, therefore. the court
merely adopted the tests of the com
mon law, and In defining exceptions to
the literal application of the statute
only substituted for the test of being
incidental or indirect, that Of beine
reasonable and this, without varying
In the slightest the actual scope and
effect Of the statute. In other words