Arizona republican., 1912-01-09
Standard Oil, Tobacco Case,
and the Great Mcnamara
Criminal Proceedings
Were the Most Important
Events.

Around the word reasonable the
Taft-recreated supreme court has wo-
ven new legal program of trust reSu-
lation for the guidance of national and
state governments That word was in
terpreteI into the Sherman ANTITRUST
law first on May 10, when the supreme
court had the final say in the long
contested government suit against the
Standard Oil Company. The opinion
of the court was unanimous that the
big Rockefeller concern had carried on
a monopoly in violation OF the law AMI
that it must disintegrate into It's COM
ponent parts within six months.
HarIan's Dissenting Opinion.
But there was ore vitally dissenting
opinion as TO the basis Of the decision.
Eight members. including the chief
justice, held that the trust was Illegal
because its restraint of trade was 'un-
reasonable" arguing that this must
have been the intent of the men who
wrote the law and enacted il. Any 9TH
,r view. said these judges. wOull make
the law impossible of enforcement. as
il would crush every sort of normal
DUSlntSS TN AIRY fDul JuSAlCt MAJ li-i
with profound conviction. held that the
question of reas1nableness could not
be considered. and that if the law
needed amending congress should do
It. "arI not this court by process Of
judicial legislation wholly uniustifi-
able" Solemnly he warned the court
and the country against this tendency.
The Standard Oil Company proceeded
t. carry out the will Of the court. at
least in form. by dividing its stock into
fractions corresponding to the thirty
odd subsidiary companies. with new Ii
rcctorates: and this plan went into
effect December l.
ON May - the supreme court knock
cd out the tobacco trust with the same
line of argument. Justice Harlan again
dissenting The process OF dissolution
was To be approved BY the circuit
court. and this was lone by organizing
three distinct corporations To- carry on
the business after November 30. Vic
tory for the courts and victory for the
trusts was the paradoXical comment
on these decisions for. while the oil AMI
tobacco trusts had to dissolve. many
pAil'i VIZ COZ p'isitl'tiN 4tlb tiisiN AlitE
had something definite on which To
build. \ portion Of the public still
doubted the actual surrender Of con-
troll by the interests owning the oil AMI
tobacco trusts. The appeal of ndepen-
dent tobacco men from the plan Of re-
organization was denied by the su-
premc court.
Besides these two great crucial Icci-
sions. the supreme court handed down
opinions of popular interest. as fol-
lows: lnvalidatinS the contract labor
law of Alabama: limiting To money the
payment offered to railroads for trans
portation; sustaining the corporation
tax law: sustaining federal cCnSerVa-
ton authority in Colorado AMI Cali
fornia: requiring corporations to give
M. their books To- the courts. and re-
lieving labor leaders of Jail sentence
FOR contempt
Would Break Steel Trust, Too.
RumOrS of the administration in
tention to get after the steel Corpo-
ration had disturbed Wall streets Vo-
taries for many months. and a stock
slump in September was checked only
by defiant statement i'm self-defpnse
by the trust officials. The long-de
laye1 report Of the commissioner of
corporations had asserted the virtual
monopoly of ore supply possessed by
the steel men and their methods of