The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-16
Important Victory Comes In the Annulmen1 of 50 Per Cent Contracts, Thereby
 Opening the Way for Competition
Court Refuses to Disturb Combination of Six CoaGayng Railroads In Pennsylvania But Hints That Separate
 Dissolution Suits Might be Brought

Erie, Central of New Jersey and New i York, susquenhanna & Western rail- i roads, with their nine subsidiaries, in
 cluding the Temple Iron Company to- 1 gether with B of the largest coal op- l orators.
 In December, 1910, the government l solution of the Temple Iron Co.,, by decision of the circuit court. That the 1 Temple Iron Co.'S stock was owned by
 baIk Independents was found. 1 That the combine monopolized pro- | duction, transportation and sale was | alleged. Merger of the New York, Sus-
 quehanna & Western and Erie rail-
 roads in 1899 by stock manipulation
 and purchase by the Reading road of l the Central of New Jersey was part
 of a plan to suppress competition was 1 also alleged. The Erie was also charg- I ed with buying up the Erie-Pennsyl- vent competition.
 In it's memorandum opinion the court held:
 ''First-That the general ombina- tion alleged by the government to ex- ist between the defendent roads for an apportionment of total tonnage to the seaboard by an agreement in the na- ture of a pool has not been ablished and therefore the relief sought by the government on the assumption of such com bination is denied. 'Second-The court finds, however, that the principal defendants did combine for the purpose of shutting out from the anthracite coal field a projected independent line of rail- roads, the New York. Wyoming and Western railroad, and to accomplish this purpose it found that the stocks of the Temple Iron Company and of the Simpson & Watkins Collieries was acquired for the purpose Of and with the intent not ofnormaily and law fully developing trade but of restrain ing interstate commerce and competi- ton in Transportation which would have presumably come about through the construction and operation of the proposed competing line of railroad lines betwen the mines and tidewater.
 ''Third-The court holds that. -cer- tain contracts made with producers the total annual supply of coal supply of coal known as the 65 per cent contracts by, which such indepen- dent producers bound themselves to deliver the output of their mines or any other mine which they might ac- quire to the railroad companies for 65 percent of the average market price at tidewater, were also void because in violation of the antitrust act as abnormal and illegal restraints upon interstate commerce.
 s'Fourth-The court reitera,tes the declaration in the Standard Oil case that the act of Congress does not for bid Or restrain the power to make the normal and usual contracts to fur ther trade by resorting to all normal methods which are by agreement or otherwise to accomplish such purpose, nevertheless it holds that the acts which it finds in this case to be il- legal.
 9'The Temple Iron Company and the 65 per cent. contracts were not within abnormal in their character and di- rectly tended to and were intended to, Illegally, restrain trade and commerce and therefore came within the statute as illustrated by the rulings in St. Louis Terminal Association, and Swift & Company vs. United States"