Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-12-17
THE COAL TRUST.
Continued From Page one.)

CURED. He first considered the charge
of general combination to .appor-
ton output. Reliance was made, he
said, in support of this charge upon
the conference of railroad presidents,
in 1896. in which it was averred eff
forts were made to distribute the coal
business upon the basis of the amount
carried in previous years.
1.-THE weight of proof" declared JUS
tice Lurton. satisfied us that what
ever might have been contemplated
or attempted, the scheme proved abor-
tive, or if attempted, was abandoned
uong before the bill was filed"
Other charges of general combina-
ton, it was declared, had been prop
erly considered by the lower court,
and while the supreme court had gone
through the record, it would not dis
cuss them.
The justice then took up the Tenn
pie Iron Co. feature of the case. He
detailed how independent operators in
the Wyoming region of Pennsylvania,
about $685. pledged their tonnage to a
new road to tidewater and how the
New York, Wyoming. and Western
Railroad Co. was projected in good
faith" on the strength of these
pledges. The eight collieries of the
Simpson e Watkins firm We're de-
scribed as powerful factors in this
project. He described how, through
the aid of ]. p. Morgan & Co., the
Temple Iron Co. was bought, convert
ed into a holding company, it's obli-
l lions rp nj Ter Inv he civ dc
in proportion to their annual coal ton
mage carried. and finally how the
Temple purchased the property of the
Simpson & Watkins firm. The with.
drawal of the support of this firm
from the proposed railroad was held
to have thwarted the roads construc-
ton.
True, the railroads reached the new
collieries,' said the justice, but the
preservation of the monopoly of trans
portation from the mines to tidewatei
held by the six lines, which We're serv-
ing the region. was plainly common
interest. The extent of the interest Of
each in the desired result seems &c
f nave been estimated by themselves as
fairly measured by the percentage OF
total tonnage heretofore carried an
lnually by it,"
| The court dwelt with the argumen
that no injunction should be ISSUED
against the Temple Co, because thu
lalleged strangulation of the projected
road was thing of the past
! After disposing of the Temple Co
| feature, the justice took up the con
tracts With the Independents, REFERRED
To lis the "Sixty-fve per cent" con
| tracts, because the railroad companie
were to pay that percentage of tn
| price of coal at tidewater to the In
| dependents" for their coal. The justic
declared that il was plainly establish
ed that these contracts We're made b,
| concert and that the plain deduction
| WAS that the contracts were Gesigne,
control the sale of the Independent
| output. Then he proceeded to shoy
how the court arrived at these conclu
sions.
The old custom of independents sell
ing to railroad companies was dc
seribed. Justice Lurton told how tn
entry of the New York, Susquehann
g. Western into the coal carrying bus
mess resulted in the percentage PAL
by the railroads to the independent
being raised from 40 per cent. to !
per cent. The proposal to build Il,