The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-05-24

THE GREATEST LEGAL DECISION OF The YEAR.
The Supreme Court, in the Standard Oil decision
last week. placed its judicial foot all contracts
combinations in unreasonable restraint of trade"
The two sections of the Sherman Antitrust law of
1890 which have been definitely interpreted,
follows:
Section 1. Every contract combination in the
form of trust otherwise conspiracy in restraint
of trade commerce among the several States or
with foreign nations is hereby declared to be illegal
Every person who shall make any such contract or
engage in any such combination conspiracy, shall
be deemed guilty of msdemeanor, and on conviction
thereof shall be punished by fine exceeding five
thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding
year, by both said punshments in the discre-
tion of the court.
Section q Every person who shall monopolize or
attempt to monopolize combine conspre with
any other person persons, to monopolze any part
of the trade among the several States
with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of mis-
demeanor, conviction thereof, shall be punished
by fine exceeding five thousand dollars or by i'm
prisonment not exceeding one year. or by both said
punishments, in the discretion of the court
Ever since this law passed it was feared that,
if enforced business could not be conducted in this
country Why this in this country? Why this fear
was greatly manifested The Citizen cannot COM
prehend.
The Sherman act does not, and never did, destroy
Property, does it take away from Property any of
the rights which Property enjoyed previous to the
passage of the Sherman statute
1t will be admitted by ALL that one OF the great
benefits that Property has been able to be-
stow is the benefit derived from combining and con-
solidatng with other property. BY such combinations
and consultations, with their union of capital effort
executive and administrative skill, and the saving
brought about by management on an enormous scale,
the production and distribution of commodities have
been made larger and wider and cheaper, and at the
time the combined or consolidated properties
have increased their earning capacities to very much
larger extent.
w consolidation the has been bene-
flied through the building up of its industries Con-
soidaton in business is merely the application of the
old fable about the father the and the bundle of
sticks. The Standard Oil company-a bundle COM
posed of 33 separate sticks-or companies, in
fntey stronger than any of those sticks COM
panies alone. Also it monopoly. And because
it consolidated it enabled to produce and dis
tribute the same grade of commodity cheaper than
any other company-not in a combnation-could pro-
duce and distribute. But it happened through the
evil genius Mr. Rockefeller and his associates, that
the Standard Oil controlled the business in other
words that it could and did UNREASONABLE re-
strain trade in violation of Section of the Sherman
act.
That is why the Supreme Court has upheld the
decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals and ordered
the company within six months to discontinue busi-
ness, place the shares and control of its subsidiary
companies in the hands of their actual owners, and
is forbidden continue it's control those sub
sdary companies and the production and transpora-
ton of its commodity.
The Citizen believes that this decision does not
attack or even threaten any big business simply be-
cause it is big The fault of the Standard Oil COM
pany lay in the fact that it has done and doing
business scale. Its fault lies in the
fact that defed for years the normal methods
of industrial development" and that it has acquired
greater economic power than any proper and legal
methods could have given it,
The decision is a great victory for President Taft
and Mr.. Wickersham. There ought to be an end
now to all test Corporations know what the
law is; their lawyers-the ables in the countryside
know what the law is That they should bend their
legal talents to finding out how the corporations can
break the law and "get away with it, seems pity
Further, it is criminal. The Sherman act is crimi
nal statute the violators of this to prison
and it would be long before such violations would
cease Even John D. Rockefeller would rather ad
Just his practices to the provisions of the
Sherman act than go to Jail"