Show NOT A MONOPOLY Missouri Supremo Court Sustains the Associated Press St Louis Dec ISThe Supreme court of Missouri at Jefferson City this morning handed down an opinion In the case Of the Star InblfsMne mm I nnon fnm pany vs the Associated Press of Illinois nois deciding the cise unanimously in favor of the Associated Pres The Star company was engaged In I publshln an evening newspaper In Sl I Louis known as the Star and It brought suit for a wilt of mandamus to I require the Associated Press to serve it with thp evening news report on the same terms on which service was being rendered to the PostDispatch which was a member of the Absoclatcd Press The Star company claimed that It was not able to secure from any other source as satisfactory a news report as was furnished by the Associated Press and that the agrcemuit of the Associated Asso-ciated Press with the company publishing publish-ing the PostDispatch not to furnish the evening report to any other paper was illegal land In violatlonxof the antitrust anti-trust laws of the United States of the State sourl of Illinois and of the State of Mis The Associated Press answered that while It wa In form a corporation it was essentially a cooperative society based upon an agreement between Us members to gather and furnish news to each othcrkr that It was not engaged in ntwsgatherintr as a commercial enterprise l en-terprise and that It carried on Its business busi-ness without any effort at profitma king Itlenlecl that Its socalled exclusive Hlve contincts were In violation of the laws and of the United States State of Illinois or the State of Missouri The opinion sustains the Associated Press at every point I holds that the Associated Press is not a monopoly and that It does not violate the antitrust anti-trust law of the State of Missouri Further Fur-ther than this it could not go holding that tho antitrust laws of the State of Illinois were not In torce outside of that I State and that the aniltrust law oC the United States was to be construed by an enforcniqnt In the courts of the United cntprCtIqnt v The suit hag been pending for a longtime lonG-time having been brought In December 1SI > 7 The Star company took the testimony testi-mony of Mclvjlle E Stone Wllam f Laffan and other newspaper men and men famlllnr with the famIlar wlh business of news gathering and the case was tried en tirely on the testimony taken by it Petition for Mandamus Springfield I De Petitions for mandamus against the Associated Press were presented to the Supreme court today by the Denver Post the New York Evening Journal and the I Chicago American Each petitioner contends thut he Is suffering Irrepara ble damage by reason of inability to obtain the news service of the Asso elated Press |