Evening star., 1925-04-07

No United States Attorney General.
even at the height of trust-bustlng
DAYS ever faced such a mountain OF
corporation litigation. present ana
prospective. John Garibaldi Sar-
gent finds piled on his big desk at
the Department of Justice. Almost
every vital necessary of life-bread
itself-is involved in the complaints,
Investigations or actual prosecutions
undergoing attention there.
1t is well that President Coolidge's
new Attorney General is a physical
giant and endowed with viGor un-
common to his years. The prediction
of every initiated person in Wash
ington is that he will need it all
during the next four years. To
younger man. William !. Donovan,
the new Assistant Attorney Ge>erdt.
has been assigned the special task
of conducting antitrust prosecutions
under the sherman law.
But the directing force. as we'll as
bearer of the final responsibility.
will he the gaunt New Englander
who has come down from his coun-
try law office in Vermont Ito help
out my friend. Cal" Mr.. Donovan
takes office with fighting record
(winner of the congressional medal
for gallantry in France) and as
United States district attorney at
Buffalo
Cases Require Much Time.
With the exception of prohibition
and taxation cases, no activity OF the
Department of Justice begins TO COM
pare with the time it devotes TO
prosecutions under the sherman anti
trust law. Proceedings against cor
porations alleged to operate in re-
straint of trade, lie, to be monopo-
listic In character, are incessant.
Al the present time they run the
gamut of such every day necessities
Of life Is aluminium, peanuts, gaso-
line, agricultural implements, eye
glasses, lumber, cement and sugar
Many cases were instituted long ago
and are still pending. Some OF them
have just been argued before the
United States Supreme Court or in
Federal courts. Others are about to
reach that stage. 1t is the big cor
porations MAT employ the skiilful
legal talent and that in consequence
know all the tricks of the trade that
bring about "the laws delays"
One of the big affairs Immediately
inherited by Attorney General Sar-
gent is the case of the Aluminium
Co. of America, in which the Mellon
interests at Pittsburgh are heavily
concerned. More than A year ago
the Federal Trade Commission lodged
a complaint alleging illegal prac-
tices against the Aluminium company.
on the very eve of his retirement
from office Attorney General Stone
announced that he had directed De-
partment of Justice investigators to
check up on the Federal Trade
Commissions evidence. This has
been in progress for nearly month
The -inves tigatorS are now ready to
report to Attorney General Sargent.
1T ought presently TO be known
whether the new chief of the Depart
ment of Justice thinks there is
ease" against the big Mellon alu-
minum combination
Two Great Concerns Sued.
Against two of the country's big
eest corporations-the Standard Oil
Company and the International Har-
vester Company-the Department OF
Justice has live proceedings pending.
Government counsel are now in Chl-
cago for the purpose of establishing
before the Federal court certain basic
facts upon which the United States
will proceed with its action in the
Standard Oil cases. These are the ac-
tions instituted in June, 1924, against
the Standard of Indiana, the Standard
OF New Jersey. the Texas Company,
the Gasoline Products Company and
others. for alleged combinations to
control the production of gasoline.
They are charged with monopolizing
certain patent rights and using there
under a process commonly known as
the cracking process" Every auto
mobilist in the country has an inter-
est in the outcome of the Standard
Oil prosecutions.
The case against the Interna tional
Harvester Co. is d so-called supple
mental petition for additional relief
under an old decree. 1t was argued
to four United States circuit judges
in the eighth circuit middle Western
States) last October. Recently Judge
William !. Kenyon of Iowa, former
United States progressive Senator,
asked relief from further participa-
ton in the Harvester case, because
it was active in the Department of