Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 October 1908 — GREAT SUIT AT CHICAGO [ARTICLE]

GREAT SUIT AT CHICAGO

Purpose of the Government In the Case Is to Smash the Standard Oil Company. Chicago. Oct 2.—Railroad officials and trusted managers of the Standard Oil company, of New Jersey, took the witness stand in defense of the oil company before United States District Judge Franklin Ferris, of St Louis, sitting as a special United States commissioner at the hearing now on In Judge Bethea’s courtroom in the fed- * eral building. The hearing Is in the case brought by the federal government more than eighteen months’ ago under a bill in equity. The action seeks to secure an injunction to stop the oil company from proceeding with any business under its present organisation and to bring about a complete dissolution. 1 In the ease the prosecution at hearings held in New York, Washington. Cleveland and Albany from Sept 8, 1807, to April 1, 1908, has submitted testimony of 160 witnesses to prove two principal charges. One is that the Standard Oil company maintains a monopoly injurious to the public welfare and the other that it is an Illegal trust and a scheme to restrain trade of small and independent oil dealers and producers.