OCR Text |
Show WICKERSHAM WAGES1 ANTI-TRUST WAR DETROIT. ' Dec. 6 Tho antl- trust campaign of Attorney-Gen- eral , Wlckerehani shified to De- - troit .thls week wfth the remit f that Indictments were returned by the federal grand Jury against f sixteen firms and thirty-two in- f dlviduals alleged to have secured control of So per cent of the -f annual output of enamel Iron- f ware bathtubs, sinks, lavatories, f etc., in the United States. The criminal prr.ceedings .4-- prew out of a civil stt to dissolve -f - the alleged combination begun by the government in the federal f covirt at Baltimore Hearings were held in Chicago. Pittsburg and New York within -4 the last forty days. ' The oidence adduced was presented present-ed to the giand jury by Edwin P. Grosvenor, special assistant to the attorney-general or the United States i District Attorney Watson, or Detroit, and Joseph Darling, special aynt of thd department of justice. Secret hearings began yesterday and nothing was- given out until the indictments were handed down this afternoon. Gtt Control of 400 Jobbers. It is chargfd that as the result of n ten-da9 meeting at Mount Celmens. Mich.,' last April, a fund of $7,000 was raised to set in motion a plnn that resulted in giving the defendants control con-trol of sixteen manufacturers and nearly four hundred jobbers, representing repre-senting an output of approximately ten million dollars a year. Both the chil suits started at Baltimore Bal-timore and the criminal proceedings here have been instituted under the Sherman anti-trust law. Defendant Firms. The defendant firms in the criminal proceedings are: Standard Sanitary Manufacturing company, Pittsburg, Pa.; A. Weislce-tel Weislce-tel & Sons Company, Baltimore; the Barnes Manufacturing Co., Mansfield. Ohio; the Cahill Iron Works, Chattanooga, Chatta-nooga, Tcnn.; Colwcll Lead company, New York City; the Day-Ward company. com-pany. Warren. Ohio; the Humphreys Manufacturing company, Mansfield Ohio; Kerncr Manufacturing company. Pittsburg; the .1. T. Molt Iron Works, New York City; McVav fe Walk;r. Braddock, Pa.; . the MeCrum-Howeil company. New York City; the National Na-tional Sanitary Manufacturing company, com-pany, Salem. Ohio; Union Sanitary Manufacturing company, Noblesville. Ind.; L. Wolff Manufacturing company, com-pany, Chicago; Wheeling Enamelled Iron company, Wheeling. W. Vn.; IT. S. Sanitary Manufactunns company, 1 Pittsburg, Pa. Two Indictments Against Industrials. The two indictments against each defendant contain six and four counts, respectively, and charge that the defendants de-fendants controlling S5 per cent annual an-nual output combined to restrain the trade of the manufacturers and of jobbers of plumbing supplies by refusing re-fusing to sell to Jobbers handling the goods of so-called independents, by fixing re-salc prices, by dividing the United States into eleven zones, by refusing to sell to jobbers who would not maintain their sale prices. It is charged that the effect of thse re sale prices is to make the price the same throughout the United States and to eliminate competition of Jobbers, Job-bers, as well as of manufacturers. Made Jobbers Enter Uniform Contract. Con-tract. The indictments alfn charge that the defendants compelled the jobbers to enter into uniform contracts and that all the defendants refused to sell to any jobber unless he wculd sisn a contract. ' The government officials took the cround that the evidence In the civil suit established that the defendants attempted to disguise their combination combina-tion by the subterfuge of purchasing the patents en certain tools and licensing licens-ing certain firms to use these tools. The government places great weight on the testimony of Edwin h. Wayman. of Pittsburg, who Is described describ-ed as the Ilcenppr of the alleged combination com-bination and whoso testimony lu" the civil suit has given him immunity from criminal proceedings. Collected a Big Fee. The government charges that Way-man Way-man obtained $7,000 from the People's State bank of Dotroit by givini 100 shares of the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Man-ufacturing company as security, and that using this fund t: purchase several sev-eral patenls. $5.n0n went back to the Standard Manufacturing company for patents that it is alleged to have turned over to the combination. Way-man Way-man is not a voluntary witness. The government charges that Way-man Way-man colle-cted JT a furnace n day from each of the sixteen defendant fiims, some of which had as many as eighty furnaces, and that after two months those firms that did net violate vio-late the agreement were to receive a rebate of SO per cent of this contribution contri-bution Wiyman's . collections, it Is alleged, ran as high as $700 a day. The defendants against wlnun Indictments In-dictments were found today will be required to appear at once iu the rnited- States court horn and give bonds for their appearance. Witnesses Who Testified. Among the witnesses who gave testimony tes-timony here are Walter .1. Kabler. president of the J M. KohW Sons company, Sheboygan. Chicago, San Francisco and New York. .I..hn A. Kelly, of the Iron City Sanitary San-itary Manufacturing company, ntLs-burg ntLs-burg and Zcllenople. Pa. John L Sullwold. president of tho Western Supply company, St. Paul, Minn. Henry E. Bullock, president of the Illinois Malleable Iron company, Chicago. Chi-cago. James K. GUmore, president of the D. M. Gilmore company, Minneapolis. |