Edward Terry Sanford

“ The International Company is prohibited and enjoined from having more than one representative or agent in any city or town for the sale of harvesting machines and other agricultural implements. (b) It shall offer for sale to responsible manufacturers of agricultural implements, the harvesting machine lines made and sold by it under the trade names of Osborne, Milwaukee, and Champion, respectively, with the equipment specially used in their manufacture, and accept a reasonable price from any purchaser approved by the United States. ”

“ The law, however, does not make the mere size of a corporation, however impressive, or the existence of unexerted power on its part, an offense, when unaccompanied by unlawful conduct in the exercise of its power. ”

“ Without entering into a detailed statement of the evidence-which is so voluminous as to render this impracticable-we find, from the greater weight of the competitent testimony, that competitive conditions in the trade in harvesting machines have been established in compliance with the requirements of the consent decree. ”

“ In support of its alternative contention that competitive conditions have not been established bringing about a situation in harmony with law, the Government relies in large measure upon various statements and tabulations contained in the report of the Federal Trade Commission, which was introduced in evidence over the objection of the International Company. ”

“ It does not appear that since the entry of the consent decree the International Company has used its capital and resources-which, although much larger than those of any single competitor, are but little larger than the aggregate capital and resources of all its competitors, and are in large part employed in its foreign trade-its subsidiary companies or incidental advantages, for the purpose or with the effect of restraining and suppressing the interstate trade in harvesting machinery ”

“ This had led to cheaper production and distribution; and, the sale of one line helping to sell the others, had brought about a change in competitive conditions affecting generally all their lines. In distributing their products they had also generally adopted the plan of selling their implements to local retail dealers, who resold them to farmers; and these dealers had become, through their personal efficiency and the good will and the friendly relations which they had established with the farmers, factors of prime importance in distributing the implements of the different companies. ”

“ By the decree as originally entered in August 1914, it was 'adjudged and decreed that said combination and monopoly be forever dissolved to the end that the business and assets of the International Harvester Company be separated and divided among at least three substantially equal, separate, distinct, and independent corporations with wholly separate owners and stockholders,' and that the defendants submit a plan of such separation for the consideration of the court ”

“ In this situation the consent decree provided, as the means of establishing the competitive conditions which it sought to bring about, that the International Company should be limited to one sales representative in any town or city, and should sell its Champion, Osborne and Milwaukee harvesting lines to independent manufactures of agricultural implements. ”

“ Thereafter, in 1920, after a hearing upon evidence, the court entered an order adjudging and decreeing, the United States consenting thereto, that the decree of 1918, properly interpreted, did not require the International Company to offer for sale the Champion and Osborne harvester plants except in connection with sales of the respective harvester lines ”