Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-12-16
L TERRA GOTTA
MEN ARE FINED
$4,000 Imposed by Federal
Court Public Not Suffer-
ers. Judge Hand Says

NEW YORK, Dec. 16.-Judge
Learned Hand in the Federal Dis
trict Court yesterday imposed hnes
of $4,000 each upon seven corpor-
atoms and ten individuals engaged In
the manufacture and distributor OF
architectural terra Gotta who pleaded
=s-lty Monday to one count of an IN
dictment drawn uader the sherman
antitrust law.
In refusing to impose Jail senten-
ces demaLdsd by the prosecution he
declared that IL. mis- opinion such
penalties should be reserved for
cases where it had teen proved that
the public had suffered from the for
nation Of the combination. that the
agreement in question was such thai
previous court decisions left no U
as to it's illegality or that practices
had been employed repugnant 10
ordinary business standards.
Judge Hand declared thai he did
not consider the division of the
country into three sections across
whose boundaries architectural terra
Gotta was not to be shipped, the
charge admitted by the defendants.
unreasonable in itself. ii added
that it might have been injurious to
the public, cut hat this had not been
shown by evidence.
The defendants were indicted on
1--WE counts, which charged them with
unlawfully conspiIing to restrain
trade, and they pleaded guilty to two
of them, which sustained the general
accusations. Two of those indicted,
Richard +. Daton ard Walter Geer,
Jr., president and vice president n
treasurer, respectively of the New
York Architectural Terra Gotta Com
pany, stuck to their tentative pleas
Of not guilty
1t was said yesterday that Geer
would be tried after some of the
other groups of similar violators of
the law have been disposed of by
trial or pleas of guilty, and that Mr..
Dalton. who appeared mainly in the
business as counsel for a client would
be let go.
The lawyers who appeared for the
defendants were former Governor
Charles S. Whitman Henry A. Wise,
Henry l.. St.msOn Thomas ID. Thacn-
er, G.. NJ. Dorr and Henry L.. Twom-
bly. Several of them appeared for
the IT, ana mantle men, VINO @lso
plea,led guilty before Federal Judge
Van Fleet. and several of whom are
now serving Jail sentences.
When Colonel Hayward agreed TO
accept pleas from the defendants ne
told the court hat ne reserved the
privilege o. discussing every phase
81 the case 10 tn end that the court
might be fully informed of h fact.
This promise was kept yesterday
when the situation was discussed by
rhe prosecution ana lapseS were COW
ED by the submission of documents.
Warns Counsel on Latitude
Tire latitude taken by the counsel
wa commented upon by Judge
Hand, who said that they had gone
far afield in citing p~recedents and
warned the lawyers that he did not
intend to permit them to try the case
in their presentation of the facts.
The corporations and individuals
sentenced to fines were the Atlanta
Terra Gotta Company and H.. b.
Wey,. vice president: the Atlantic
Terra Gotta Company, William H.
Powell, president, and f. G.. Evatt.
vice president; the Conklin-Arm-
strong Terra Gotta Company, and
Thomas +. Armstrong, president;
the Federal Terra Gotta Company,
De Forest Grant, president, and
Harry Lee King, assistant secretary;
the New Jersey Terra Gotta Com
pany. e. v. Eskesen. president and
general manager. and Karl Mathia-
sen, Jr., secretary; the New York
Architectural Terra Gotta Company,
he South Amboy Terra Gotta Com
pany, and Peter C. Olsen, secretary,
and o. w. Ketcham.