The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-03-08
DID BREAK TRUSTS,
SAYS WICKERSHAM
Critics. Says Ex-AttOrncy-Gcn-
eral. Failed to See Real
Achievement.
POINTS TO BIG CHANGES
Combinations Formed i'm 90
Years. He Says. Can't Be
Destroyed at Once.
POINTS TO BIG CHANGES

GARDEN CRY. l.. I. March Former
Attorney General George W. Wickersham
was the principal speaker this evening at
the sixth annual dinner OF the Nassau
County Bsr Association at the Garden
City Hotel. Others who spoke were Ed
ward @. Wright president OF the asso.
citation Surrogate John q. Graham OF
Nassau county. John Almet s jerks OF
the Brooklyn Appellate Division Of the
Supreme Court. Supreme Court Justice
Luke u. Stapleton. Congressman Lathrop
Brown and Job Hedges
Mr.. Wickersham said that undue con-
fdence In the Immediate results OF legis-
lation and the disappointment in the i'm
mediately obvious results OF the DEGREES
against monopolistc corporations under
the sherman law had for time obscured
what really had been accomplished.
when the Standard oil and tobacco
companies were divided up" he said "th.
fact that the same persons We're stock.
holders IN like proportions in all OF IN,
Distribute corporations was used TO sup.
port the contention that the dissolution
was not real But the COMPANIES war.
separated. forbidden by the courts decree
to combine or consolidate anew. and in
the case OF the tobacco companies for
Dluutn 10 nave common OFFICERS
directors or common agents
81 said at the time ~ the dissolution
that these facts inevitably would lead 10
a further severance Of interest Larry.
holders finding that competition bn-
tween the companies could no, ho prn.
vented would sell their holdings In some
Of the companies. and concentrate their
interests in one company or in two or
more that were not in competition with
each other
The critics We're impatient They could
not await results and much misrepr.sen-
tation and public misunderstanding fol
lowed. But the process | foresaw has been
going on. and still is.
THE Rockefeller interests have sold
their stock In tn. Waters-perce Com
pany to the Henry clay Pierce interests
VERY shortly after the dissolution of
the tobacco trust Its stock In United
Cigar Stores Company was sold to out.
side interests. The Reynolds company
increased its stock from $4,000 to
$40, 100000 and the twenty nine individual
defendants-the men who had built up
and controlled the trust-b.ing enjoined
from increasing their holdings, the in
creased stock went into other hands
James Is buk" has centred his inter
est largely in British-American Tobacco
Company. l don't know precisely to what
extent the other large holders of the
TOBACCO STOCKS nave segregated their In
terests, hut know the process is going ON
81 believe that the community of stock
interest in the different companies created
out Of the tobacco trust is very greatly
changed and that IL must entirely disap-
pear within a reasonably short time. That
Is the inevitable result Of dividing the
business among a dozen or more com.
panies.
THE big combination was built up with
nall Il
to dissolve as result Of legislation. The
process OF building took more than twenty
years, The results Of dissolution do no,
follow az by the wave of an enchanter's
wand. They take time.
~ within two or three years twenty
years monopolstic growth is undonc
surely the public should he satisfied
Great reforms in government are achieved
gradually. II is one of the functions OF
trained minds. such as yours. to point out
this fact TO the people and teach then
patience"