The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-10-04
Madison Sets Stage For Biggest
 'Trust-Busting' RodeO In 30 Years
Trials Involving "A Oil Concerns to Be
 on Grand Scale
BY WILLIS THORNTON NEA Service Stan COrrespOndent)

(NEA Service Stan COrrespondent)
 Madison, Wis, Oct 9 - The stage is being elaborately set here for the biggest rodeo of "trust-busting since Theodore Roosevelt rode herd on the "malefactors of great wealth" 30 years ago. Practically every big oil company doing bus- mess in 10 states of the middlewest goes on trial Oct. 1.
 The Department of Justice charges that they have been cre- ating and maintaining artificial prices, that they did this by il- legally pooled gasoline purchases at artificial prices which they suc- ceeded in makign the going mar ket price.
 They are charged with having sold gasoline to 4000 jobbers un- der long term uniform contracts in which the price to be paid was determined by prices published in certain trade papers.
 These papers, together with 24 big oil companies and Al of their executives, are all under indict- ments returned last fall by fed- eral grand Juries here.
 Battery of 45 Lawyers
 These trials will be staged on the grand scale. Nearly dozen houses have been rented for the duration of the trials. The whole ground floor of the Bank of Wis consin building has been remod- eled for the use of William J. ("Wild Bill'D Donovan and his battery of 45 lawyers represent ing the oil companies
 A fleet of express company trucks, has been unloading files, cabinets, trunks and books sent in from all parts of the country. Sev- eral of the companies have not only leased headquarters for their legal talent, but are bringing skeleton office staffs here for the trials. The indicted oil trade journals also have established headquarters and will relay de- tailed accounts of each days pro- ceedings to the trade.
 Private lines and switchboards have been set up to connect the legal headquarters of the oil men with their temporary residences in hotels and even private homes.
 Admission by Card
 As the federal district court in which the trials Is to be held holds only 150 persons, should all 47 de- ferdants, their 45 lawyers, the governments seven daywers, and some 100 witnesses all try to get in at once, there would be some confusion. Admission is expected to be strictly by card only. For the expected 10 weeks of the trials, Madison will be the "oil capital" of the country.
 %he proceedings, worked up for tho government by John Henry Levin, Hammond E. Chaffetz, and other assistants to Attorney Gen. eril Cummings, are brought under tho 47-year-old sherman Anti Trust Act, and may furnish a new chapter in the history of law that has had a checkered career. Just what Is meant by its ban on "combinations in restraint of trade" in interstate commerce, has had various interpretations.
 The sherman Act was passed in 1890, in @ non-partisan vote which resulted when long Bryan-led clanor against "The Trusts" com pelled action by Congress to try to stem the tide of big business. But the act remained 0 virtual dead letter SO far as enforcement went. for several years. A U. s. Supreme Court decision in a case against the American Sugar Re- lining Go. in 1895 (the so"called Knight easel was believed to have extracted its teeth.
 Ordered It Dissolved
 At the turn of the century, how ever, the Supreme Court took new view of the Sherman Act, The government sued to prevent @ holding company, the North ern Securities Co.,, from getting control of the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific railways.
 President Theodore Roosevelt feared that a group of financiers was trying to get control of all the railways of the country. The court now ruled that the Northern Sc. curities Go. was an illegal combi- nation, and ordered t dissolved.
 This decision put the teeth back in the Sherman Act and in the remaining years of the Roosevelt administration there were A prose- cutions brought under 1t, as com pared to IS cases in the II years preceding.
 Outstanding were the famous suits against the Standard oil Go and the American Tobacco Co Both cases were won by the gov ernment in every court. including