The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-06-22
IS ORDERED D1 ;LvED
Foty-Three Corporate and Individual
Defendants Named in the Action
Which Was Started
In 1907.

decision declaring the alleged powder
trust, which is dominated by the E. T.
dupont de Nemours company, Is a
combination in restraint Of interstate
commerce in powder and other ex-
plos1ves, in violation of section of
the Sherman antitrust law; that 1t at
tempted to monopolize and has mon
opolized part of such commerce in
violation of section of the same law.
and decreeing that the combination
shall be enjoined from continuing this
violation and that 1T shall be dissoly-
ed
The action against the powder trust
was begun by the government in 1907
and was directed against forty-three
corporate and individual defendants.
The suit as to fifteen of the defend
ants was dismissed because some of
the concerns are out of existence or
1t was not shown that they were
parties to the combination.
In an interlocutory decree the court
fixed October 16 as the date to hear
both sides as to the nature of the in
junction to be granted and to con-
slider plan for dissolving the COM
bination ito the end that this court
may ascertain and determine upon a
! plan Or method for such dissolution
! which will not deprive the defendants
| OF the opportunity to recreate out of
the elements now composing such
combination, q new condition which
shall be honestly in harmony with and
not repugnant to the law
The only member of the Dupont
family mentioned in the suit who is
not found to be violating the law is
Henry A. Dupont, United States sen.
ator from Delaware. The court
found that in June, 1906, year be-
fore the suit was begun, he resigned
all his official positions in the com
panies and has had neither real nor
nominal connection with their manage
ment since then.
The decision, written by Judge w.
M Lanning and concurred in by
Judges Geo. Gray and Joseph Buffing-
ton, goes into the history of inter
state commerce in gunpowder and ex-
plosives back as far as 1872, when the
! government charged, the first trade
/ agreement of manufacturers was en-
tered into. 1t finds that when the
suit was begun, the Dupont Company
organized in 1902, controlled in the
! United States the trade In:
1 Black blasting powder, Ga per cent
Saltpeter blasting powder, 72 per
cent.
Black sporting powder, 70 per cent
| Smokeless military and ordnance
powder. exclusive of what the United
States government itself made, 100
per cent.
The court also finds that the Dupont
company Of 1903 and the Eastern
/ Dynamite controlled by the Duponts,
had acquired control of sixty-four cor
porations between April, 1903, and
September, 1907, and caused them to
be dissolved, II then discusses wheth
er the combination found to exist is
obnoxious to the provisions of the
antitrust act.
Citing the recent decisions In the
Standard Oil company and tobacco
cases interpreting the Sherman act,
the court comes to this conclusion:
/ TT matters not whether the com
bination be in the form of trade as
sociation or a corporation if 1t arbi-
trarily uses its power to force weaker
competitors out of business or to
/ coerce them into sale or union with
the combination, it puts a restraint
upon interstate commerce and monop-
! olizes. or attempts to monopolize, a
part of that commerce in sense that
violates the antitrust act,
Considering the I1nal decree to be
issued, the court says:
ITO stop the business of the com
hination Immediately might be attend
ed with very disastrous consequences
The defendants, or some of them, for
example, furnish military and ord
nance powders to. the United States
government. We understand, also,
that they furnish explosives used in
the construction of the Panama canal
Their ability to continue to do so
should not be destroyed before the ex.
piration of reasonable time for adj
justing their business to the changed
conditions"