The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1911-01-12
SUIT TO DISSOLVE AMERICAN
TOBACCO COMPANY.

Case Being Argued Before United
States Supreme Courx-Charged
That Company Operates In Re
straint Of Trade.
washington. ID. c.. Jan. s--Oral
arguments directed At the proposed
dissolution OF che so-calIed Tobacco
Trust" were begun late to-day IN the
Supreme Court Of the United States
As q year ago. when the dissolution
suit was argued for the flrst time be-
fore the court. 90 to-day ]. c. Nc
Reynolds. special assistant TO the At
torney-General in charge Of the to
bacco fight for tAe Government.
made the opening address to the
court. He had not concluded his re-
marks whea court adjourned until
Monday. Ar. McReynoIds surprised
some members Of the court By stat
Ing that the dissolution was asked
not only under the Sherman anti
trust law. but under the Wilson ia
riff act of 1894.
Mr.. HcReynolds told the court
that this was the first case that ever
had been brought under the Wilson
tariff act The act, he explained,
applied to instances OF restraint OF
trade where al importer was party.
Much discussion had taken place
in the trust cases as to whether
or not the phrase restraint of
trade" as used in the Sherman anti
trust law. was equivalent to ere
straint OF free competition" Mr..
McReynolds pointed to the Wilson
act as the Congressional interpreta-
ton OF the Sherman act, passed four
years previous, in which all doubt as
to the meaning had been removed
by using the phrase restraint Of free
competition"
Nearly the entire time that Mr..
McReynolds spoke was devoted to a
history Of the so-called Tobacco
Trust" from the time the first Amer
ican Tobacco Company was organized
in 1890 for the alleged purpose of
effecting a monopoly in the cigarette
trade, and thus avoiding competition
of Independent corporations, down
to the Incorporation in 1904 Of the
new American Tobacco Company as
a holding company, controlling 65
companies interested in various
branches of the tobacco business.
He described the plug war" about
1892 resulting in the organization of
the Continental Tobacco Company,
by which, he alleged, peace was re-
30 ;~I
dents was eliminated. He told of
similar combinations in the snuff,
cigar and stogie trade
These combinations he described
as designed to remove competition.
Once organized, he told how compel
ing plants were purchased, each pur-
chase being accomplished by cove
nants on the part of those who were
selling out not to engage in the bust
ness Of manufacturing or selling to-
bacco within from ten to twenty
years in the United States, except in
Nevada, and a territory or two.
Finally he turned to the contracts
of the American Tobacco Company
with the so-called British Tobacco
oobS IhO 1OUdCCO COm-
pany. By these contracts, he said,
the trade of the world in tobacco had
been parcelled out between them, the
American trust" taking the United
States and Cuba for it's own: the
British trust" Great Britain, Ireland
and the Isle of Man, and the British
American Tobacco Company organ
lied by the two trusts carrying on
the tobacco business in the rest of
the world. AS result of these COM
binations, he alleges that competition
for the purchase Of leaf tobacco had
been eliminated in the United States.
The suit under the Sherman anti
trust law to dissolve the so-called
Tobacco Trust" was instituted in
1907 in the Circuit Court of the
United States for the Southern Dis
trict OF New York. The proceeding
was brought by the Department of
Justice against more than sixty cor
porations and a number of ind1yid-
uai defendants. headed by James B.