The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1911. A TRUST AND ITS METHODS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 67, 20 March 1911, Page 4

The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1911. A TRUST AND ITS METHODS.

Some idea of the means adopted by -the American "get rich quick' societies, the trusts, to achieve their ends is afforded by the publication or certain facts in connection, with the so-called "Bath-tub Trust'» which is •at present, being proceedea against 'by the Federal Department of Justice at Washington. The evidence •presented by the Government in this discloses >an apparent attempt to use the monopoly granted by th-j ipatent laws.as a screen, for an ulesal monopolistic, combination. Under American patent laws as interpreted by x the courts it is unquestioned that a patentee may fix the price at which the patented article is sold. It^ is also a debatable question whether several owners of different patents on different parts of an article may legally pool their patents for the purpose of controlling the price at which the completed article is to be sold. But in the "Bath-tub" case the patent, which is used as a device to justify a combination, for the^ purpose of fixing prices, and eliminating competition, is ; a. patient, not upon the article manufactured hy the "combination', but upon an insignificant tool used in 'its manufacture. The prosecution is brougHt against sixteen corporations engaged in the manufacture of all kinds of enamelled ironware used in the plumbing of a house, such as bath-tubs, washbisins, kitchen sinks j etc. It is exrlained by the New York Outlook that the principal component of these articles is cast iron. The cast iron article is taken,red hot from the furnace, and in that. condition there is sifted upon, ijb; a "porcelain powder,',' the ingredients of which are secret. The combination of the powder with the red-hot iron forms the completed enamelled product. . Twenty manufacturers : engaged in the business have an annual output of over £3,----000,000. Two or three of the companies manufacturing the enamelled ware own patents on different forms of a simple tool used in the manufacture of the ware. Under the old method of manufacture, the "porcelain powder" was applied to the by an operator who held the sieve containing the powder in one hand and tapped the handle of the sieve with the other. The patents are for different forms of an automatic tapper concealed in, the handle of the sieve. Early last year, after a long series of conferences among the different matinfacturers of the 'enamelled ware; :&ie patents *on this. little tool were assigned to a young man, apparently without capital, named Waymouth. Immediately thereupon this young man granted a license to each of the manufacturing companies for the us© of these patents, under' a contract which determined the prices at which the manufacturer should sell the completed enamelled ware product, and all the terms and conditions of sale, which prescribed the i form of contract under which the manufacturer should sell to the .jobber, and the prices at which the .-jobber should resell, and which provided that no manufacturer should sell to any jobber who handled independent goods, or who refused to sign a contract. Severe penalties were prescribed for failure to live up to the terms of this license agreement. Complete control- of wholesale, jobbing, and retail \ prices of the enamelled J ware was the result. The matter came to the knowledge of Mr Taft's officers, who are ever on the alert where monopoly is concerned, and a civil suit against the sixteen manufacturers was instituted in July <of last year, and a criminal proceeding was thereupon instituted against the sixteen companies and > thirty-four officers of those companies. Late in December the defendants offered to consent to an injunction in the civil suit, and to plead guilty in the criminal suits, provided the Attorney-, General would not ask the Court to impose gaol sentences. This request it was impossible for the AttorneyGeneral /to grant, and latest advices state that both^ civil and criminal suits are being vigorously prosecuted. The trust will no doubt fight a hard fight, and it will probably be some considerable time before the matter is finally settled. Btij> a verdict for the Government is almost certain.