St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1912-09-25


in DEGREES for the
pleas Of guilty in
four criminal cases and six in
which defendants interposed pleas of
guilty, two were quashed, five dis
missed and verdicts for the defend
ants rendered in three cases. Sixteen
cases were left unfinished
In the first three years of the Taft
administration the sixteen cases left
over by Roosevelt have been finished
and sixty-two new cases, twenty-five
civil and forty criminal brought. The
first Of February this year four de-
murrers had been sustained in the
criminal cases, pleas of nolo
contendere entertained to eleven in
dictments involving over eighty re-
spondents, one respondent had plead
ed guilty, eight out of twelve re-
spondents had been convicted by
jury and thirteen criminal cases
were still pending. In the civil cas-
es judgment was rendered in one
case, in three the defendants sub
mitted to DEGREES granting what the
government had asked, two were
dismissed and sixteen were pending
In quantity alone the Taft admin
istration can show nearly twice as
large results in the bringing of cases
against illegal combinations.
T.
favorable to Pres. Taft. At the time
he took Office the government had
succeeded in showing that the act
could be applied to the railroads and
to pools of business men who by
agreement and fictitious bidding de-
eide to which member of their or
ganizatiOn a certain contract should
go and that was all. 1t had not
been applied to the regulation of
great aggregations of former COM
petitive dealers and producers who
formed mergers, consultations or
stock holding corporations and fixed
the prices and quality of necessities
of life and prevented competition in
the lines of goods they controlled or
whether the law must apply in every
combination that in the least de-
gree restricted interstate trade. I'm
der the Taft administration it has
been determined that the statute
does reach the class of combinations
first mentioned above and that the
statute does not apply unless the
restriction of trade prevents COM
petition or creates unequal and un-
just advantages for the combina-
ton.
The Taft administration has deter
mined that the law will prevent the
holding of competitive plants in
idleness to stop competition, con-
spiracies to monopolize all the in
terstate trade in a particular COM
modify by acquiring control of COM
peting concerns through stock mem
bership in a holding company, agree
ments not to sell to persons not
members of certain trade organiZa-
tions, agreements forcing contractors
and other consumers to buy from
certain retailers when business
might be done more advantageously
With wholesalers or manufacturers,
the formation of pools for the divi-
sion Of business on a percentage
basis, agreements to sell all of
manufacturers output to one COM
pany in order to give that company
complete control of the retailing of
a certain commodity and the use
of patents on a certain part of an
article to compel dealers to purchase
certain other parts that were not
protected by patent.
This is but part of what has been
but a rehearsal of all
the cases which have been pushed to
completion show that the law has
been applied to and stopped to near
ly every form of combination that
has been devised to allow unfair
methods in operating against COM
petitors and unfair to the general
puDilC. II - AOI dpp41Su dSdIhOJ
combinations that have not resorted
to some form of unfairness, brutali-
ty or dark and undetermined method
that destroys the right of equal OPP
pOrtunity. These accomplishments
have been brought about by the per-
sistent and impartial efforts of the
present administration and is
strong feature Of it.
1t is because the present law has
been tried out and its effectiveness
so thoroughly determined that GER
tain interests are supporting the
candidates. of men who condemn
the present law and advocate
change. They desire the change not
in the interests of the public but
TO secure some untried and INFESTED