Show TO REVOKE CHARTERS QuoWarranto Suits Brought t Against Ohio Corporations MONETT PREPARES PAPERS Properties Attacked Are All Popularly Popular-ly Supposed to Bo Controlled by the Morgan Syndicate Their Charters Arc Assailed on the Ground That They Are Controlled and Operated as One In Violation of State Laws Forbidding Combinations in Re Restraint of Trade Columbus 0 Dec 23Sult3 In < quo warranto were brought today In the Circuit courts of Crawford and Logan counties to revoke the charters of the Columbus Hocking Valley Toledo Railway company the Ohio Central Hallway company the Kanawha Michigan Central Railway company the Buckeye Coal < Railway company arid the Sunday Creek Coal company The suits were brought In the names < of the Prosecuting Attorneys of Crawford Craw-ford and Logan counties They were prepared by Frank Monctt formerly General and now attorney for the AntiTrust league David F < Pugh and E B Flnlcy The charters of the companies arc attacked on the ground that they are controlled and operated as one in violation of the State laws forbidding combinations In restraint re-straint of trade and the consolidation of parallel lines oC railroad The properties prop-erties mentioned arc nil popularly supposed sup-posed to be controlled by the Morgan syndicate CAUSES ALLEGED For a first cause of action it Is claimed that Ihc corporations arc op crating In violation of the statute of March IS 1R82 forbidding the aid of one corporation by another through subscriptions to UP capital stock and prohibiting the lease or purchase of a railway by a parallel line His charged that the Hocking Valley and Ohio Central Cen-tral arc virtually consolidated and that their stock hit rests are Identical VIOLATION OF STATE LAWS For a second cause of action tho plaintiff cites section 4127 of the Ohio antitrust law J and charges that the defendant companies ale In combination combina-tion as shown by their having Rlvqn Joint mortgages It Is also charged that thejT have conspired together to limit the production of coal while Increasing In-creasing the price of shipment and the cost to the consumer It is charged that the railroads named are In a combination com-bination In violation of the law as to freight and passenger rates covering all forms of traffic The companies are charged with shutting off the supply of coal to manufacturers and fixing a common standard for all their opera tions EVASION OF TAXATION For a third cause of action evasion oC taxation and falsely returned valuations valua-tions are charged It is charged that the blanks for filing the taxable property prop-erty of the Hocking Valley railway mailed to the proper officers by the Auditor Au-ditor of the State April 1 1001 were returned with schedules showing property prop-erty susceptible to taxation aggregating aggregat-ing SI006060 whereas the companys taxable property at the time was In reality 4503860577 Mr Monett refused to say by whom the suits were instigated He denied a rumor that Mayor Tom Johnson of Cleveland was back of them but said that Johnson was interested in the prosecution of the cases |