The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-12-05

ue COuTtS never aSSuueQ power CO say that such contracts or combina- tiOns or cOnspiracies might be lawful if the parties to them were only mod crate in the use of the power thus se- cured and did not exact from the pub lie too great and exorbitant prices. It is true that many theorists and others engaged in business violating the stat ute have hoped that some such line could be drawn by courts, but no court Cf authority has ever attempted it. Certainly there is nothing in the deci- sions of the latest two cases from which such dangerous theory of jul dicial discretion in enforcing this stat ute can derive the slightest sanction. } Force and Effectiveness of Statute .
 Matter of Growth.
 We have been twenty-one years mak- ing this statute effective for the pur- poses for which it was enacted. The Knight case was discouraging and seemed to remit to the states the whole available power to attack and suppress the evils of the trusts. Slowly. howev- CT, the error of that judgment was cor rected, and only in the last three or four years has the heavy hand of the law been laid upon the great illegal combinations that have exercised such an absolute dominion over many of our industries. Criminal prosecutions have been brought, and number are pend ing, but juries have felt averse to con- victing for jail sentences and judges hop roIIr0to nf fn iUonnCp such sentences on men of respectable standing in society whose offense has been regarded as merely statutory. Still, as the offense becomes better un- derstood and the committing of it par takes more of studied and deliberate defiance of the law we can be conf dent that juries will convict individu- ads and that jail sentences will be inn posed. The Remedy In Equity by Dissolution. In the Standard Oil case the supreme and circuit courts found the combina- tion to be 8 monopoly of the interstate business of refining, transporting and ' marketing petroleum and it's products, effected and maintained through thir- ty-OCfCh 0IhCLCIt SOA pOAdSAOaSs S1S stock of which was held. by New. Jer- sey company. It in effect commanded the dissolution of this combination, di- rected the transfer and pro rata distri- button by the New Jersey company of the stock held by it in the thirty-seven corporations to and among it's stock holders, and the corporations and indi- yidual defendants were enjoined from conspiring or combining to restore such monopoly, and all agreements be- tween the subsidiary corporations tend- ing to produce or bring about further violations of the act were enjoined.
 In the tobacco case the court found that the individual defendants, twen- ty-nine in number, had been engaged in a successful effort to acquire com plete dominion over the manufacture, sale and distribution of tobacco in this country and abroad and that this had been done by combinations made with a purpose and effect to stife competi- tion, control prices and establish monopoly, not only in the manufacture of tobacco, but also of tin; foil and lie orice used in its manufacture and of its products of cigars. cigarettes and snuffs. The tobacco suit presented a far more complicated and difficult case than the Standard Oil suit for decree which would effectuate the will of the court and end the violation of the stat ute. There was here no single hold ing company, as in the case of the Standard Oil trust The main company was the American Tobacco company, manufacturing, selling and holding company. The plan adopted to de- stroy the combination and restore com petition involved the, redivision of the capital and plants of the whole trust between some of the companies con .stituting the trust and new companies organized for the purposes of the de cree and made parties to it and num- benng. new and old, fourteen.
 x Situation After Readjustment.
 The American Tobacco company (old), readjusted capital S92, 100000; the Liggett & Meyers Tobacco company (new), capital $67 .OOOO GOO; the P. Loril- lard company (new), capital 47,000,- 900, and the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco company (ol0, capital S7,525, 900. are chiefly engaged in the manufacture and sale of, chewing and smoking to baceo and cigars. The former one tin foir company is divided into two, one of $S25, 900 capital and the other of $4O0.OO0. The one snuff company Is divided into three companies. one with a capital of $15,OO0 ,0OO. another with capital of $S,OOOO 900, and third with a capital of $S.0OO.OOO. The icorice companies are two. one with a capital of s, ,75S. 300 and another with a capi tai of $2,OO0.OOO. There is also the British-American Tobacco company, a British corporation, doing business abroad with capital of $26,OOO,OO0, the Porto Rican Tobacco company, with a capital of -S1.SOO.O00. and the corporation of United Cigar Stores, with capital of $9,OOOOOO.
 Under this arrangement each of the different kinds of business will be dis tibuted between two or more compa- nies with a division of the prominent brands in the same tobacco products, SC as to make competition not only possible. but necessary. Thus the smoking tobacco business of the coun- trv is divided so that the present in- dependent companies have 21.39 per cent, while the American Tobacco con- pany will have 33.0S per cent, the Liz Q eDn n-