| Show AN UNLAWFUL combination the makers of and the dealers in butter who do business in this city are dissatisfied with gitil the condition of the butter market larket ri and acting upon a perfectly natural instinct they have set themselves to work to secure the relief they think they need but before entering upon the program they are seeking to carry out they should have consulted a lawyer some leading spirit among them whose identity has not been disclosed to the news has haa drawn up a document which recites that for some time past the state of the butter market has been unsatisfactory to the makers and sellers of that product then follows an agreement by which all dairymen and dealers who sign it bind themselves to charge 20 cents per pound aa the wholesale and 25 cents as the retail price palce of creamery butter these rates were to go into effect today april 20 the copy of this document which was seen by a news representative yesterday bore a dozen or more signatures now each maker of and dealer in butter who has signed this paper beyond doubt regards himself as a worthy citizen engaged in a worthy and legitimate business who is making a very proper effort to protect that bustness business n from the consequences 0 of f a demoralized zed market and it will probably astonish him very much to be told that he is a wretched criminal and a vile conspirator but such he is in the estimation eson eaon tima ti on of the law perhaps and probably he is in a very honest and well meaning individual and a most worthy church member but he is also a heinous malefactor who is liable to five fine and imprisonment should his guilt be sufficiently uncovered in a courton court of competent jurisdiction it is in a crime to sign such a paper as the one above described in the state of utah such an act is made a crime by section 1782 1752 page ge revised statutes 1898 which is as an follows any combination by persons having for its object or effect the controlling of the prices of any professional services any products of the soil any article of manufacture or Commer commerce pe ov 01 the cost coat of exchange or transportation is prohibited and declared unlawful lawill the punishments for violating this section n or biber other sections of the se same title are pretty stiff it if the culprit la is a corporation company firm or awo asso dia dialto tilon the penalty is a fine of not less es than ri 00 nor more than 2000 for the first offense tense of for the second offense the fine is not less than nor more than for the third offer offense lse the minimum fine Is and the maximum 10 for each subsequent offense the fineday fin emay be if the offender offen det la Is an individual he may be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars or by confinement in the county jail not more than one year or by both any corporation violating this 1 provision shall thereby forfeit ft it corporate rights and franchises andeits corporate existence shall thai thereupon reubon cease and determine it would take the profits oft off ot quite a lot of butter to pay the flues fines provided by law tor for signing such poi pai pers as the butter people of this city have been affixing their signatures to within the last few days and should the county attorney and sheriff take it into their heads to follow the matter up the demoralization of the butter market will likely be perceptibly augmented the best thing the butter men can do is to destroy that paper instantly st and then assume an innocent unconcerned look while they wait for the law of supply and demand to regulate the market their cause may be just but the law does not say so ao |
