The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-01
TOBACCO TRUST LAWYER MAKES
 BITTER ATTACK Delaney Nicoll Says Poor, Downtrodden Independ- ents Did $35O,OOO,OOO
 Business ' Declares These Companies Are Trying to Get Up Reputation As Trust Busters.
Special from United Press.)

New York, Oct. 31.-Speaking for
 the American Tobacco Company, De-
 lancey Nicoll, in the United States
 Circuit Court, today, defended the
 proposed reorganization plans of the
 Tobacco Trust and bitterly attacked
 the independent tobacco companies
 for opposing the proposed plans. At i torney General Wickersham, Joseph | Choate, Louis Ledyard. Adrian H. 1 Larkin, William B. Hornblower and Louis D. Brandeis were among the
 attorneys gathered in the courtroom !, for today'S hearing.
 | In opening, Nicol declared that the
 American Tobacco Company had been harassed for four months by Attor- 1 ney General Wickersham and his as-
 sistants, with radical changes" to i the proposed reorganization and that Wickersham's ideas had been adopt i ed.
 And yet we come into court with 1 this reorganization plan perfected" declared Nicoll, "and find scores of
 our competitors here as protestants." :" Nicon declared in sarcastic tones that the "poor, downtrodden inde- pendents," represented by Attorneys 1 Brandeis, Levy and Yerkes did a
 combined business of s350,000,o0O. :. T will tell you why they are here" | get up little regulations for them selves as trust busters so they can exploit these regulations for their political advancement in coming cam paigns. That's why all these attor- neys are so interested"
 Nicoll claimed that the reorganiza- | ton plan proposed by Brandeis was l framed up," to assist the independ- ent manufa cturers and dealers at the expense of the American Tobacco Company. The plan proposed by John w. Yerkes, of the. independent was well worked out to prohibit the stockholders of the American Tobacco Company from purchasing stock in any of the IA companies into which 1 the trust was to be divided.
 Adrian H. Larkin, representing the preferred stockholders of the Ameri- can Tobacco Company declared the l independents had no right to inter pose objections.
 | l.. c. Crawthoff, representing the declared the stockholders demanded l the right to purchase stock in the distinguished companies if they saw l fit.
 1 Attorney General Wickersham was the next speaker. Wickersham de- for the independents and expressed surprise that the attorneys for the
 trust should express such indignation
 over their appearance in the case.
 The attorney general declared he
 had done all he could to help the
 working out satisfactorily of the dis, | integration plan. He said he had all along ineisted that the units in the new plan be made as small as possl- ble Wickersham asserted that mu- | tual ownership of securities under the tobacco plan was practically unavold- able and that there were several pre- cedents for such ownership as in the
 dissolution of the Northern Securities Company He declared, however, | that. as an abstract proposition, he did not favor such ownership. Tn the early portion of his speech, wickersham neither opposed nor sanctioned the reorganization plans proposed by the company.
 He called to the special attention of the court the fact that under the proposed reorganization plans the control of the American Tobacco Company and it's subsidiary com panies would be transferred from the common to the preferred stockhold- prS