The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-10
Conviction of Five Officials
of Turpentine Trust
Is Set Aside
JUDGES INSTRUCTION
CAUSE OF DECISION
Delivered Erroneous instruction to the
Jury-COurt Rejects Contention
of Defendants as to
Rule of Reason

Washington, 1p' SSs The cGpstitutiOn-
ality of the She nS antitrust law. as
a criminal statY as upheld today by
the United stf 8 2 dprene court. The
court set asidf 80 entenees in the Grim
ina1 suit aga z : he "turpentine trust
on the groq o. at the trial judge had
delivered az q neous instruction to the
jury, but RI the contention of the de-
PENDANTS that--he "rule of reason an
nounoed in the Standard Oil decision made
the forbidden acts so indefinite as to make
the Sherman law as a criminal statute
unconstitutional
THE decision sustains the sherman
law" said Attorney General McReynolds
tonight. ..-
A civil suit for the dissolution of the
trust is still pending in the lower courts.
Convictions Set Aside
Convictions of five officials of the Amer
lean Naval Stores company of Savannah,
the so-called turpentine trust, for Grim
inal violation of the Sherman law, We're
set aside today by the supreme coure be-
cause of an erroneous instruction of the
trial judge.
Justice Pitney was the only dlssenter TO
the opinion. Officials of the department
of justice, however, did not regard the
decision as one generally unfavorabe to
the criminal section of the Sherman law.
They never considered that they had
strong case. Edmund S. Nash president
of the company, had been fined $1,000; j. f.
Cooper Myers, vice president, fined $500,
and sentenced to Jail for three months;
Specer p. Shotter, chairman of the board,
fined 5000 and sentenced to jail for three
months George Mead Boardman, treas
urer fined $4,000, and Carl Moller, manager
of the Jacksonville branch, fined $4,000.
All the sentences were set aside. Shet-
ter's and Myers cases were the first con-
victions for VIC stions Of the Sherman
antitrust law carrying Jail sentence to
come before the supreme court.
Conviction Could Be Had
The trial Judge instructed the jury that
"a conviction could be had If the de-
PENDANTS We're found guilty of any of the
means charged man attempt to effect a
monopoly. a-.. .
One of those means. Justice holmes said
in announcing the courts decision, was
an offense which would not be restraint
of trade but mere cheating, punishable by
statutory law.
In announcing the decision of the court,
Justice Holmes said that the rule of
u
rea son" did not make the forbidden acts
so indefinite as to make the Sherman anu
trust law as a criminal measure unconsti-
tutional.
One contention of the convicted officials
was that the criminal section OF the anti
trust law was unconstitutional because
the acts forbidden were too indefinitely set
forth. While the case has been going on
the company has gone into the bank
duptcy proceedings. Its officers charged
that the governments attack, among
other things, had impaired its credit.
The convictions which came up from the
court of appeals for the Firth circuit
were upon indictments alleging that .he
defendant had conspred to manipulate the
naval stores market so that competitors
and otherwise producers could not sell
except at ruinous prices, and had been
guilty of various other methods Oh mo-
nopoly and restraint of trade.