New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-04-27
Court Orders.
Reading Coal
Trust Ended
Continued from page one)

iHeeI tHe ueHanQS OF business grow
ing as result of superior and enter
prlslng management, but by deliberate,
calculated purchase for control
The majority opinion referred to the
investigation conducted in 1915 by the
Interstate Commerce Commission into
the transportation of anthracite coal,
which the courts said Showed unlaw-
1ui discrimination against other coal
shippers by the holding company with
the Reading Coal Company and by the
central company with the Wilkes
Barre Coal Company" asserting "such
favoritism tends to discourage COM
petition and to unduly restrain COM
merce."
Justice Clarke's Opinion
Justice Clarke, in concluding his
opinion, said:
lit results that the decree of the Dis
trlct Court will be affirmed as to the
Lehlgh Coal and Navigation Company,
the Lehigh &, New England Railroad
Company and the Lehigh e. Hudson
River Railway Company, as to the re-
strictive covenants in the mining leases
with respect to the Shipping of coal, as
to the dissolution o. the combination
between the Phiade lphia and Reading
Coal and Iron Company and the Lehigh
and Wilkes Barre Coal Company, main
tanned through the Reading Company
and the Central Railroad of New Jer-
sey.
LAS to the Wilmington g. Northern
Railroad Company and as to the indi-
vidual defendants, the bill will be dis
missed without prejudice. AS to the
Reading Company. the Philadelphia &
Reading Railway Company, the Phila-
delphia and Reading Coal and Iron
Company and the Central Railroad Of
New Jersey, the decree of the District
Court WI. be reversed and the cause
remanded with directions to enter a de-
cree. in conformity with this opinion,
ing Company, the Philadelphia &
Reading Railway Company. the Phila-
delphia and Reading Coal and Iron
Company, the Central Railroad of New
Jersey and the Lehigh and Wilkes
Barre Coal Company, existing and
maintained through the Reading Com
pany, with such provisions for the dis
position Of the shares of stock and
bonds and other property of the va
rious companies, held by the Reading
Company, as may be necessary to es-
tablish the entire independence from
that company, and from each, of the
Philadelphia & Reading Railway Com
pany, the Philadelphia and Reading
Coal and Iron Company, the Central
Railroad Company Of New Jersey and
the Lehigh and Wilkes Barre Coal Com
pany, and also that such disposition
shall be made by the decree of the
stock and bonds of the Wilkes Barre
and Lehigh Coal Company, held by the
Central Railroad Company of New Jer-
sey, as may be necessary to establish
entire independence between these two
companies, to the end tfRt the affairs
of all of these now combined companies
may be conducted in harmony with the
law"
Justice White Dissents
"By the opinion Chief Justice
White said in the dissenting opinion,
now announced this action of the
court below, in SO far as it directed
dismissal, is reversed and virtually
the full relief prayed by the govern
ment is therefore granted. We are
unable to concur in this conclusion
because, in our opinion, neither the
conventions as to the Sherman act nor
the reliance upon the commodities
clause, except to the extent that in the
particulars stated they were sustained
by the court below, has any founda-
ton to rest upon.
eve do not state at any length the
reasons which led US to this view, be-
cause the court below, composed of
three circuit judges, in comprehen-
sive and clear opinion sustained the
correctness of the action which it took
and also demonstrates thes error in
volved in the decree of this court re-
versing it's action. To that opinion we
therefore refer as stating the reasons
for our dissent
Justice Clark Reviews Case
In the majority opinion Justice Clark
reviewed the formation of the Read
ing holding company and it's sub
salaries, which. he said. without out
lay, acquired under charter issued in
1871 but unused for twenty years
ownership of railway equipment real
estate and other assets valued at $685.
$4,000.
"Thus," he continued, "this scheme
of reorganization, adopted and executed
six years after the enactment of the
antitrust act, combined and delivered
into the complete control of the board
Of directors of the holding company
all of the property Of much the largest
single coal company operating in the
Schuylkill anthracite coal field and al
most 1000 miles Of railway over which
its coal must find it's access to inter-
state markets.
"This board of directors, obviously
thus acquired power: To increase or
decrease the output of coal from very
extensive mines, the supply Of it in the
market, and the cost of it to the con,
sumer; to increase or lower the charge
for transporting such coal to markets
and to regulate car supply and other
shipping conveniences and thereby help
or hinder the operations of independ-
ent miners and shippers of coal This
| constituted a combination to undu1y re-
strain interstate commerce within the
meaning of the act.
about the year 1900. the holding
company and many other initial anthra-
cite carriers and their controlled coal
companies, pursuant to an agreement
with each other, made separate agree
ments with nearly all Of the independ-
ent producers Of coal along lines to
purchase at the mines all The anthra-
cite coal thereafter mined from any Of
their mines now operated and to pay
therefor IS per cent of the average
price of coal prevailing at tidewater
points at or near New York, computed
from month to month"
Holds Such Power a Menace
The majority opinion continues:
Thus, this (the lower) court held
that once within two years and again
within four years after it was organ
lied, this holding company used the
great power which we have seen was