New-York tribune., 1921-11-29
81 Big Glass
Firms Indicted
AS Combine
CONTINUED from paus one,

the market they tied up the labor
unions in an agreement which insured
the curtailmea, of the production of
window glass. so as to keep the supply
always sufficiently below the demand,
to give the price-fxing end of the COM
bine clear field.
we have included the president of
The labor organization in the indics-
inert because of the as 1T that he played
In manipulating the so-called wage
scale, which was really intended to cur
tail the production of these plants, 50
as to reduce the supply"
AS to the legal aspect of the in
clusion of Neenan, the labor leader in
the Indictment, Mr.. Podcll declared
that, in the opinion of the Federal
prosecutors here, the mmunities grant
ed to labor under the antitrust laws
cannot be extended to cover any overt
acts which are clearly part of gen
erai conspiracy to restrain trade, and
whose primary object is to curtail the
production of a commodity.
"A wage scale in it's usual sense is
entirely legal" he said, "and may be
adopted by any labor organization
either with or without an agreement
with their employers, but where it is
obvious that the wage scale is merely
subterfuge or device to accommodate
manufacturers in their efforts to cur
tail the supply it is just as clearly
illegal and a violation of the Sher-
man law"
To make it impossible for the de-
PENDANTS in this case to plead guilty
to part of the indictment and not guilty
to the remainder, as in the case of the
- riN l. he
tence was passed last Wednesday. the
glass Indictment has been drawn in
only one count.
The defendants are charged generally
with combination to suppress COM
petition; to maintain arbitrary, ex-
ccssive and extortionate prices; to
curtaii the production and the supply
of window glass, and arbitrarily to
control the sale, shipment and delivery
of window glass into the Southern
District of New York, as we'll as in
other parts of the various states.
After taking up the distributing sys-
TEN alleged to have been used by the
combine, the indictment concludes by
specifying the steps called for by the
alleged conspiracy with Neenan and the
National Glass Workers. 1t is charged
that in accordance with this agreement
the quantity to be produced annually
by each of the manufacturers, the pc
riod within which the manufacturers
were to operate their plants and fac
tories, and the amount to be manufac
tured by each of the employees, were
determined and prescribed: that in
pursuance of this agreement between
the manufacturers and the labor or
ganization the employees did not en-
gage their services to any manufac-
turer who did not sign the so-called
wages scales; and that as soon as d
manufacturer had produced the allot-
ted amount of glass or operated his
plant for the allotted time the en-
ployees were withdrawn, under threat
of heavy fines.
This arrangement, it is charged, was
calculated solely to curtail the guam
tlty o. glass which the defendants were
capable oil producing. to reduce the
supply of the commodity in the various
markets, and thereby to enable them to
control and arbitrarily maintain ex-
cesslve and extortionatc prices and to
supptess competition.
In addition to Necnan and the John
ston Brokerage Company, the corpora
tions and their officers who were in
dicted yesterday were:
Allegany Window Glass Company and
II. W.~Iiiiton. president; Alliance Window
Glass Company and A. Hambene p. r ST.
dent; BIackford Window Glass Conn ny
and Frank Bastin secreta Try -trea surer and
general manager Baker Brothers Glass
Company and Charles ii. Baker, secretary
treasurer; Brookville Glass and Tile Com
pany and Elmer f. Myers. general mana
ger; Banner Window Glass Company and
ius pupierreux, president and general