The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1915-08-26
EASTMAN KADAK
CONCERN IS HELD
TO Be MONOPOLY
Company Is Given An Opportunity BY
v. s. District Court to Abrosate
Business Methods


man Kodak Company Of Rochester
N. Y, is a monopoly in restraint of
trade in violation of the Sherman an
thrust law according to decision
handed down here late today by
Judge John r. Hazel of the United
States district court. The decision
grants the defendant company an
opportunity to present a plan for the
abrogation of the illegal monopoly on
the first day of the November term.
Judge Hazel in his opinion stated
that while it appeared that no ire
deemable hardship would result from
a separation of the present business
into two or more separate companies
1t was not at this time intended to
indicate either dissolution, division
or reorganization.
It no doubt is possible, he said that
an adequate measure of relief might
result from enjoining the unfair prac-
tees of the terms of sale agreements
and from a separation of the business,
but that defendants should have an
opportunity to present to the court
on the first day of the 1915 November
term a plan for the abrogation of the
illegal monopoly unduly and unreas-
onably restraining interstate trade
and commerce or II an appeal from
this interlocutory decree Is taken to
the supreme court and this decision
Is affirmed, such plan is TO be present
ed within sixty days from the filing
OF the mandate.
Competition Suppressed
The defendants in their answer,
denied restraining trade or competi-
tion or engaging in a monopoly, and
claimed their status was a result of
the creation and development within
their plants Of products of a support
or quality and of the manufacture Of
a camera in which they were the con-
ceded pioneers.
no OplllOl itNlt"cu III uNldil thS
acquisition of the control of raw pa
per and of competing companies and
stated that it was difficult to avoid
conclusion that these acts were for
the purpose of suppressing competi-
ton and in the furtherance of an in
tention to form a monopoly. In sub
sanitation of this 1t was pointed out
that in nearly every instance the con-
veyances contained restrictive cove
nants prohibiting the officers of the
acquired concerns from rendering the
business for periods ranging from five
to twenty-five years, thus serving as
said in the tobacco case, as perpetual
barriers to the entry of others"
The court said the gains and prof
its of the company for the year Of
1915, which amounted to $685.
] 551. 33 or about II per cent on total
sales OF $24,763, 4O7 .65, showed the
large disproportion between the cost
of manufacture and price paid by
| the consumers. II Is undisputed, the
court held, that the Eastman COM
pany controlled approximately 70 per
cent or so per cent of entire trade
and had accordingly obtained a mon
opoly.
"The burden rested upon the de-
PENDANTS to prove that this was ac-
complished by lawful methods" Judge
Hazel said, "and after careful con-
sideration I have concluded that such
burden was not borne, but that on
the contrary the government has
shown affirmatively that interstate
trade and commerce have been un'
Justly and abnormally restrained by
the defendants. "