The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1920-04-27
PR. MUST QUIT
COAL BUSINESS
Government Wins Suit Against
Hard Coal Trust.
MUST REOISTRI8UTE STOCK
United States Court Orders Oissolu-
tion of Combine by Separation OF
Railroads and Mines.

Railroads and Mines.
Washington, April 27.-The Phila-
delphia aud Reading railway and its
coal companies were ordered Separat-
ed by the supreme court.
Federal antitrust dissolution suits
in the so-called hard coal trust case
were decided in favor Of the govern
ment.
BY a vote Of to 3 the supreme
court sustained the governments
charges thai The companies violatr''
the '',.nnlGiUiliIirS clause OF the int ef
sac. u!niIerce act and ordered the
dissolution.
al, :, a,..l Z mud Central of New
Je.,.,~ railroads, the court decided,
Ms. dispose of stock ownership. re-
sprr.lvely, of the Philadelphia and
ReHding Coal and Iron company, and
th, I.ehgh and WilkesBarre Coal
Company.
Justice Clarke rendered the decision
f0 ,ne majority, while Chief Justice
NhHe, in a minority opinion in which
Associate Justices Holmes and Van
Deianter joined, said the minority was
III favor of accepting the opinion OF
the lower court
associate Justices McReynOlds and
Bfandeis did not participate in the
decision. Justice McReyn0ldS was
attorney general during part of the
time the government prosecuted the
suit which was instituted in Philadel-
D., in 1918
Justice Clarke reviewed a length
the formation of the Reading holding
company and its subsidiaries which,
he said, without outlay, acquired un
der charter issued in 1871, but un
used for twenty years, ownership OF
railway equipment, real estate and
other assets valued at Sl93,6l3,0OO.
Thus" he continued, this scheme
of reorganization, adopted and execut-
Ell six years after the enactment of the
antitrust act, combined and delivered
In q 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
SchuyIkill anthracite coal field and al
most one thousand miles of railway
over which its coal must find its ac'
cess 20 interstate markets. This board
Of directors, obviously, thus acquired
pn,.-er: TO increase or decrease the
output of coal from very extenslye.
m.Hes. the supply of 1t in the market,
AMI the cost of i: to the consumer; to
increase or lower the charge for trans
porting such coal to market; and to
regulate car supply and other shipping
curveniences and thereby TO help or
Il der The operations of independent
miners and shippers of coal. This
constituted Il combination to unduly
restrain Interstate commerce within
tie meaning of the act
The suit of the government against
II leading company and allied cor
p - ions is probably the most impor-
Il ep the department of Justice
has AIKEN in its attack upon what II
C, J. rndS is monopoly in the anthra
Gle coal trade In 1907 the govern
T. filed suit against all the an
tt acite coal carrying railroads and
affiliated coal companies, charging that
general illegal combination existed
among them This charge was not sus
tanned by the supreme court, but the
government won two other material
rn'nts in that suit 1t then decided
10 fake, action against many OF the
coriDanies in separate suits.
The Reading case was a suit In
eq q.ity 20 dissolve combination of
competitive producers, shippers. sell
erS md carriers of anthracite coal
h, rogether by a holding corporation
k n as the Reading company. which
II government cOntended constituted
.onopoly in restraint of trade In
v alton of the federal antitrust law.
Tho purpose of the sui was also to
|. dissolve a cOntributory combination
be+wcen two of such competitive pro
drrprS shippers, soldiers and carriers
A "nrther object of the suit was ~
en 'nin certain of the defendants from
tr. sporting in interstate commerce
a. hracite coal in which they have an
ir ,cSt which the government alleged
is n violation of the commodity clause
of the Interstate commerce act.