WAR AGAINST TRUSTS IN AMERICA. T HE remarkable judgment delivered on
Saturday last by Judge Landis in the Federal District Court of Chicago, when the Standard Oil Company was condemned to pay the unparalleled fine of 29,240,000 dollars, or nearly six million pounds, is the first step towards a "holy war" against Trusts. Judge Landis, after having had all the evidence before him of illegal bargains between the Standard Oil Trust and the Chicago and Alton Rail- way, swept away all the trash of technical and casuistical arguments and gave a judgment of high moral principle and untrammelled good sense. That, after all, is what every Judge is in every Court to do, but it is not often that Trusts come in contact with the judicial duty so heroically performed. Judge Landis said, according to the Washington correspondent of the Times, that he re- gretted that he had not the power to send to prison men who by their commercial acts injure society more deeply than the makers of false coin and the robbers of mails. His words were hailed with repeated cheers, which have since echoed throughout the United States ; and at the end of the trial he capped one sensation with another by calling a special jury for August 14th to investigate the same violations of the law in order to determine whether after all, under a different law, the parties to the proved illegal commercial manipulations cannot be imprisoned. " One really responsible man in jail " is what is wanted, says the President of Princeton University, as we are told by the New York correspondent of the Times, and perhaps he is right.
• A "holy war," we are justified in saying, has begun. Of course there has been " a sort of a war " already, but no really heavy gun has hitherto been brought into action. No doubt there are many laws against commercial monopolies, but they have fired mere grape-shot against heavy armour. There is actually a law with the bold and explicit name of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, but in the last sixteen years it has lived peaceably alongside the Trusts. The Inter-State Commerce Act is older, and, till last Saturday, was quite as ineffectual. There are more Trusts now than ever. In addition to the old guns which are being trained on the Trust position by Courts of Law, another gun of an experimental kind is being brought to the front by the Federal Govern- ment. It may or may not go off. A legal action is approaching against the American Tobacco Compaq, but ment of a Receiver to administer the Company or wind u n up its affairs. Really what the Government want, as the Times correspondent in Washington pointed out recently, is information about the exact methods of the Company, which now are only a matter of speculation. Of course this weapon which the Government are trying to use is a dangerous one. If it does go off it may explode in the wrong direction. The establishment of an inquisition— which is what such measures as the Government propose might lead to when employed in the wrong way—would be a drag on quite legitimate enterprise. For an example of illegitimate enterprise we cannot do better than examine the case which has just been tried by Judge Landis. The law which the Standard Oil Company have violated is known as the Elkins Anti-Rebate Law. One thousand four hundred and sixty-two violations took place between September, 1903, and March, 1905. The Chicago-Alton Railway Company, like every railway company in Great Britain, are allowed to trade only on condition that they guarantee to the public certain rights ; the transport of persons and goods being regarded as a matter of public necessity which cannot be treated irresponsibly as a mere means of private money- making. If a civilised State does not care to own railways itself it is bound to secure that those who do own them shall never play fast and loose with one of the first necessaries of a modern commercial community,—a cheap and speedy circulation. It may be said that the Chicago-Alton Railway in giving secret rebates to the Standard Oil Trust were doing no public wrong in the sense we have defined, but, of course, the ultimate effect of what they did was simply that and nothing else. Traders who attempted to resist the monopoly favoured by the railway company found that they were winnowing the sand ; and every private person who was forced to pay the price demanded by the monopolists suffered through the failure of the non-monopolists. The Inter-State Commerce Law does what its name implies : it deals with the con- ditions under which commerce passes from one State to another. Now the Standard Oil Company were prosecuted under this law, and they argued that the rebates given to them by the Chicago-Alton Railway —really exacted by them from the Railway—could n'ot properly be dealt with under this law as the railway lay entirely within one State,—the State of Illinois. Judge Landis, in analysing the nature of inter-State commerce, declared that there was only one test which could be honestly applied : Are the goods transported intended to pass from one State to another If they are, they must be treated as inter-State commerce, and it makes not a jot of difference whether the railway lies wholly within one State or not. He described the argument for the defence as an " abhorrent heresy." The Standard Oil Trust have, nevertheless, plenty of shot left in their locker. It is the notorious habit of Trusts to argue their cases up through all the Courts in which they can appeal. Even if a case goes againkt them in the end they will have spent less in legal fees than they would have lost by the immediate suppression of some unfair advantage. Mr. Rockefeller, the head of the Standard Oil Company, is reported to have received Judge Landis's judgment with unconcern. He was playing golf when the news came, and like Sir Francis Drake, who is said to have finished his game of bowls after the Armada was in sight, he knew that there was no need to hurry.
But Mr. Roosevelt, who cheers on the army in the war against Trusts, will probably be more successful than Philip of Spain. We do not underrate the difficulties. If the Standard Oil Company in the end pay the enormous fine to which they aro provisionally condemned, that will not break them as a Company or even give them sleepless night. They may even recover every cent of it from the public by raising their prices. But, in the end, we believe that a way will be found to defeat the very large and improper monopolies. Public opinion can do almost anything, and public opinion is stirred. An amusing sign of the approval of Judge Landis's penetration and strength is the offer he has received, according to a Laffan telegram, from a New York company :—" I am authorised by the directors of the People's Security Company, the law department of which represents two thousand labour organisations of Greater New York, to offer you the general counselship of the same with a salary of physical or their mental constitutions, but only to ease and lighten their burdens, to give them refreshment and a rest to their souls.
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