Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-04-01
CORN PRODUCTS
REF MING co. IS
To De DISSOLVED
Compromise Results in End Of.
Litigation and Sale of All
Three Largest Manufacture
ing Plants,
icy MORNING JOURNAL SPECIAL LEASED w,Rtl

New York, March 31--Dissolution
of the Corn Products Refining Com
pany, which is required 10 sell to conf
petitors before 1921 all but three OF
its manufacturing plants, was ordered
by Federal Judge Learned Hand to-
day. The decree, following a dismiss
sal by the supreme court few hours
earlier of the corporations appeal
from a previous judgment dissolVing
the concern, was the result of a com
promise agreement between the de-
PENDANT and the government, which
charged that the company was mo-
nopoly.
The corporation, whose properties
are valued at 100000 is permitted
to retain its factories at Argo and
Pekin, Illinois, and Edgewater, n. j.
It must dispose OF IT'S plants at Chica-
go, Granite City and Davenport Hi
nois; Oswego, N. Y, and Jersey City,
N j.
The properties to be retained, f. I.
Bedford, president of the company
said, are the largest but he described
the judgment as "a little more dras-
tic than we were willing for a long
time to consent to"
The decree was agreed upon, Mr.
Bedford added, in order to avoid long
continuation of the lit CATION, whose
initial step was a decision by Judge
Hand in June, 1916, ordering dissolu-
ton of the company. which was
merger of several Independent con-
Germs. In view of the permission to
retain the Argo, Pekin and Edgewa-
ter plants, he said, the directors con-
sidered the compromise judgment, "A
reasonably fair settlement" particu-
larry as it did not destroy the organi-
cation nor take from the concern It's
trademarks.
The factories to be sold, he stated,
would reduce the corporations daily
grinding capacity by $4,000 bushels,
The company, Mr.. Bedford said,
owned 100 per cent of the stock of its
subsidiaries, anufacturers of candy,
starch, glucose and other corn pro-
ducts. The merger was effected IN
1906. At that time, he said, the COM
pahys output was more than so per
cent of the country's total, but 1t now
is only SO per cent.
All the concerns competitors, he
asserted, had united recently in re-
ommendation to the department Of
Justice that the suit be settled in the
interest of the industry as a whole.
The subsidiary concerns include the
National Starch company, at Oswego,
n. Y, and the Novelty Candy Com
pany, with plants at Chicago and Jer-
sew City. The other factories bear
| the name of the parent company. The
original parties to the merger were
the Corn Products New York Glu-
cose, Warner Sugar Refining and st.
Louis Syrup and Preserving Com
panies. Judge Hands decree of 1916
| entailed distribution of the corpora
| tons properties among separate own
ers, in order to bring about resump-
| ton of competition among the several
companies which it had absorbed. The
court held that the Corn Products
concern was a combination in re-
straint of trade, that it had sold some
of its products below cost to force
| losses upon its competitors and that
ii had influenced railroads to increase
freight rates on commodities figuring
| in the industry, to the detriment of
| rival concerns.
The compromise decree, drafted
| jointly by counsel for the government
and the corporation, requires that the
| five plants to be disposed of be sold
| to actual competitors
Appeal Dismissed.
Washington, March 31.--Upon the
motion of the company the supreme
| court today dismissed appeals
| brought by the Corn Products Rein
! ing company in proceedings under
/ the Sherman law brought by the gov
eminent against the corporation.
| Attorney General Palmer an
nounced later that decree in the
proceedings would be rendered today
| in the federal district court in New
| York from which the appeal was
/ taken to the supreme court.
The suit was dismissed by agree
ment between the government and
| the defendant, following similar ac-
ton recently in the case of the Inter-
! national Harvester company.
In the Corn Products case, the gov
eminent charged that the company
| with subsidiary concerns. engaged in
unfair competition, fixing prices for
| its products and gaining other advan-
| tages over competitors through the
| payment of freight rebates on ship
! ments of starch, glucose, grape sugar
| and other products.
Judgment was rendered in the fed
i, eral district court of New York
| against the defendants. restraining
| them from resuming the practices
cited and ordering dissolution of the
| concern along the general lines or
| dered by the federal court in the
Harvester case,