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Show Mimm csl ca s sued ura m sman urn i . . . ..... ....... . Attorney-Generai, Under Direction of President, Begins Proceedings for Injunction to Break Up Great Oil Trust; Statement of the Case. V WASHINGTON, Xov. 15. Attorney-General Moody today, acting through the resident United States District Attorney, instituted proceedings against the Standard Oil ''company of New Jersey uuder the Sherman anti-trust act, by filing in the United States Circuit court at St. Louis a . petition in equity against it and its seventy constituent corporations and partnerships and seven individual defendants, de-fendants, asking that the combination be declared unlaw- ful, and in the future enjoined fromntering into any contract con-tract or combination in restraint of trade, etc. The following statement was prepared pre-pared and made public by Attorney-General Attorney-General Moody today: "In June last, by direction of the President, Messrs. Kellogg and Morrison Morri-son were appointed by me special Assistant As-sistant Attorneys-General to act with Assistant Attorney-General Purdy, to make an investigation of the relations of the Standard Oil company of New Jersey, to the business of . refining, transporting, distributing and selling oil throughout the United States; to ascertain all the facts, and report whether or not in their 'opinion there has been; a violation of the Sherman anti-trust law by the Standard Oil company com-pany of New Jersey, or of the persons or corporations .associated with or managing man-aging it. The counsel have completed that duty'and the report of their investigation inves-tigation 'has received careful consideration considera-tion by the President and his Cabinet. I Control Oil Market. "The information available to the department de-partment tends to show that the various vari-ous corporations, the limited partnerships partner-ships under the control, in the manner hereinafter stated, of the Standard Oil company of New Jersey, produce, transport trans-port and sell about 90 per cent of the refined oil produced, transported and sold in the United States for domestic use and about the same proportion of refined oil exported from the United States; that this share of the business has been procured by a course of action which, beginning in'1870, has continued under the direction of the same persons, in tne main, down to the present time; that these persons now surviving are John D. Rockefeller, William Rockefeller, Rockefel-ler, Henry H. Rogers, Henry M. Flagler, John D. Arehbold, Oliver II. Payne and Charles M. Pratt: that the design aided by the establishment of railroad rates for transportation which diacrim nated . In favor - of the corporation whose stock was held by the holding company, that company has been n v abled to obtain In large sections of the country a monopoly for the sale of refined re-fined oil, with the result that the prices to the consumer within the . territory where the monopoly prevails are very ' much .higher than within the territory where competition to some extent still existj. "It is believed that these faets, to gether with others contained in the re port .of the special counsel, justify and -reoaire action by the United States in .the courts. Accordingly a petition in " equity under the provisions of the Sher-nian Sher-nian Set, has this day been filed againstf the Standard. Oil jfiompany-of. New Jersey, Jer-sey, and seventy other corporations and limited partnerships and the seven inj dividual defendants before named, in the Eighth judicial circuit at St. Louis, Mo, to have the said combination adjudged ad-judged and declared, to be unlawful and, that the holding and control .by the Standard Oil company of New Jersey of the stocks, of the seventy corpora-! corpora-! tions be declared unlawful and the said corporations be prohibited from- declaring declar-ing or paying any dividends to the Standard Oil company of New Jersey and be enjoined from entering into . or performing any contract or combination combina-tion to restrain trade and commerce or to monopolize trade in the future. ' "The question whether any action of a different nature be taken is reserved for future consideration. The controversy- is now pending in the courts and further comment by this department or by anv one connected with , it would obviously be improper and unfair." throughout of the persons having control con-trol of the enterprise has been to suppress sup-press competition in the production, transportation and sale of refined oil and to obtain, as far as possible, a monopoly therein; that between 1S70 and 18S2 the design was effected through agreements made between many persons and corporations engaged in this business; that in 13S2 the result aimed at was made more certain by investing in-vesting in nine trustees (including five of the above named persons), sufficient stock in the; thirty-nine, corporations concerned to enable the trustees to control con-trol their operations in such a way that competition between them was suppressed; sup-pressed; that this plan was acted upon until it was declared unlawful by the Supreme court of Ohio in an action against the Standard Oil companv of Ohio, one of ttaid corporations, in 1892; that during the seven years following the same individual defendants, as a majority of the liquidating trustees, were pretending to liquidate the trust, but as a matter of fact, were managing all of the corporations in the same way and exercising the same control over them; that the individual defendants, in 1899, increased the stock of the Standard Stand-ard Oil companv of New Jersey from $10,000,000 to $110,000,000; that said company was then a producing and selling sell-ing corporation and they added to its corporate powers the power of purchasing purchas-ing stock in other companies and practically practi-cally all of the powers exercised by the trustees under the unlawful trust agreement agree-ment of 1882; that the Standard Oil company of New Jersey, then .taking the place of the trustees,, acquired all of the stock of the corporations theretofore there-tofore held and controlled by the trustees, trus-tees, paying therefor by the issue of its own shares in exchange; that the president presi-dent of the board of trustees became the president of the Standard Oil company com-pany of New Jersey, and the same persons per-sons (the individual defendants), who had directed 'the business then assumed the direction of the business of the Standard. Oil company of New , Jersey and tver since continued it; that the purpose and effect of the use of the Standard Oil company of New Jersey as a holding company was precisely the same as the purpose and effect 61 the appointment of the trustees herein 'before 'be-fore referred to, namely, to suppress competition between the corporations and limited partnerships, whose stock was first held bv the trustees and then by the Standard Oil company of New Jersey; that by the foregoing methods, |