Harlan F. Stone

“ The trial court instructed the jury in substance that if it found that the respondents did conspire to restrain trade as charged in the indictment, then it was immaterial whether the agreements were ever actually carried out, whether the purpose of the conspiracy was accomplished in whole or in part, or whether an effort was made to carry the object of the conspiracy into effect. ”

“ The trial court refused various requests to charge that both the agreement to fix prices and the agreement to limit sales to a particular group, if found, did not in themselves constitute violations of law, unless it was also found that they unreasonably restrained interstate commerce. In particular the court refused the request to charge the following:
'The essence of the law is injury to the public. It is not every restraint of competition and not every restraint of trade that works an injury to the public ”

“ Reasonableness is not a concept of definite and unchanging content. Its meaning necessarily varies in the different fields of the law, because it is used as a convenient summary of the dominant considerations which control in the application of legal doctrines. Our view of what is a reasonable restraint of commerce is controlled by the recognized purpose of the Sherman Law itself. ”

“ An inquiry otherwise relevant and competent may not be excluded merely because it tends to discredit the witness by showing his relations with unreliable persons.
Respondents called numerous witnesses who were either manufacturers or wholesale dealers in sanitary pottery, to show that competition existed among manufacturers, particularly the respondents, in the sale of such pottery. On direct examination these witnesses were asked in varying form, whether they had observed or noted competition among the members of the association. ”

“ Moreover, in the absence of express legislation requiring it, we should hesitate to adopt a construction making the difference between legal and illegal conduct in the field of business relations depend upon so uncertain a test as whether prices are reasonable-a determination which can be satisfactorily made only after a complete survey of our economic organization and a choice between rival philosophies. ”

“ The indictment sufficiently alleged that the conspiracy was carried on in the Southern district of New York by combined action under it. The record is replete with the evidence of witnesses for both prosecution and defense, including some of the accused, who testified without contradiction to the course of business within the district, the circulation of price bulletins, and the making of sales there by some of the members of the association organized by respondents. The secretary testified that, acting for the association, he effected sales within the district. ”

“ Respondents, engaged in the manufacture or distribution of 82 per cent. of the vitreous pottery fixtures produced in the United States for use in bathrooms and lavatories, were members of a trade organization known as the Sanitary Potters' Association. Twelve of the corporate respondents had their factories and chief places of business in New Jersey, one was located in California, and the others were situated in Illinois, Michigan, West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. ”

“ Sentence was imposed in part on the first count and in part on both counts, to run concurrently. The combined sentence on both counts does not exceed that which could have been imposed on one alone. There is nothing in the record to suggest that the verdict of guilty on the first count was in any way induced by the introduction of evidence upon the second. In these circumstances the judgment must be sustained if either one of the two counts is sufficient to support it. ”