The Monmouth inquirer., 1924-07-03
U. S. SUES so
OIL COMP ANIES
Standard Group Charged With
Joining Conspiracy to Control
Industry in Nation.
PETITION IN EQUITY FILED
Old Patent Rights Attacked by Attor-
ney General stone-Piea for In
junction, in Chicago, Probably
to Be Heard in Fall.

Washington.-The Coolidge Admis-
istration moved legally to break the
alleged combination. conspiracy and
monopoly in gasoline when Attorney
General Stone filed a petition in equi-
ty in the District Court at Chicago
against the Standard Oil Company
of Indiana, the Standard Oil Company
of New Jersey, the Standard Oil
Companies of New York, California,
Kansas, Kentucky Louisiana and
Ohio, alleging conspiracy to violate
the Sherman Antitrust law.
The suit is one of the largest and
most important ever instituted under
the Sherman act, and seeks to prevent
and restrain the defendants from fur
Their violation of the law. Conspiracy
TO curb trade among the States and
with foreign nations in gasoline, kero-
sene and other hydro-carbon products
by pooling patents is charged against
the Standard Oil and secondary de-
PENDANT corporations.
The legal action taken follows an
inquiry lasting six months by Depart
ment of Justice agents, who have Gov
cred the United States and Europe in
their investigation. The Federal
Trade Commission also has made a
thorough investigation and submitted
its report to President Coolidge. who
turned it over to Attorney General
Stone on June 5. The investigation
by the Department of Justice was d.
rected more especially to learning
whether the several Standard Oil COM
panies had violated the dissolution de-
cree of 1911.
Secondary defendants who have
become parties to the combination by
accepting licenses from one or more
of the primary defendants include
these:
Aetna Refining Company, American
Refining Company. Beacon Oil Com
pany. Clayton Oil and Refining Com
pany. Charles F. de Ganahl, Galena
Signal Oil Company of Texas, Globe
Oil and Refining Company, Grays-
burg Oil Company, Hickock Producing
Company. Humble Oil and Refining
Company. The Imperial Company,
Ltd. Indian Refining Company, Indus
trial Refining Company, Indiahoma
Refining Company, Interstate Rein
cries, Ellitt Jones & Co., Lion Oil and
Refining Company. Magnolia Petro-
leum Company.
Miller Petroleum Company, Omaha
Refining Corporation, Owl Oil Com
pany, Petroleum Refining Company,
Producers Pipe Line and Refining
Company Pure Oil Company Root
Refineries.
The petition alleges that. due to in
creased .emand tor gasoline, result
ing from the great increase in the use
of automobiles, manufacturers now
utilize processes tor cracking" gaso-
line, which increases the yield from
a given amount Of stock from so to
100 per cent over the old methods Of
distillation. The process is described
as the subjecting of the residue after
distillation to high temperatures and
superatmospheric pressures, thus
effecting the decom position. or crack
ing, of the molecules OF the heavier
hydrocarbons, gas oil. etc, into the
molecules of the lighter hydrocarbons
known as gasoline
Charges are made by the Attorney
General that, although disclosures of
this pro less were made in patents is-
sued sixty years ago and long since
expired, and that while there now are
no valid patents covering broadly the
basic features of the process. the
primary defendants have pooled a
number Of paten = covering unimport-
ant Improvements relating thereto.
and are seeking to extort huge sums
from the manufacturers of gasoline in
the guise of royalties and by means
of certain restrictive covenants con-
tanned in license agreements to re-
strain aad monopolize the interstate
and foreign commerce in so-called
cracked gasoline and other com
modities produced by the cracking
process"