ANTI-TRUST CAMPAIGN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1141, 31 May 1911, Page 7

ANTI-TRUST CAMPAIGN.

TOBACCO TRUST VERDICT. / —— By Telecraph-Prcsß Assoeiation-CopyriEUt. Washington, May 29. The United States Supremo Court holds the Tobacco Trust to be an illegal combination in restraint of trade. DISSOLUTION WITHIN SIX MONTHS. (Rec. May 31, 1 a.m.) New York, May 30. Tho Supreme Court held that the Tobacco Trust attempted to monopolise the trade with injury to the public and its competitors, and that it was also guilty of intimidation. Tho dissolution of the Trust was ordered within sis months. Sixty-five American and two English corporations aro affected.

The Tobacco case was brought in 1907 in tho United States- Circuit Court for tlio Southern District of IXevr York, the Government the complaining party. Allies in tho various branches of tho tobacco business, with combined assets of more than 400,000,000 dollars (.£80,000,000), constituted the organisation which it wtus sought to have dissolved. The four Judges each gave separate opinions. Three of them united in a decree holding that many of the corporations involved had entered into tt combination "in restraint of trade," in violation of tho Sherman Act. These three Judges decreed the dissolution of this combination. Other corporations, including the United Cigar Stores Company, the Imperial Tobacco Company, and the British-American Tobacco Company, it was found, were not in the combination. None was held to be "monopolising" in violation of the second suction of the Sherman Act.