Harlan F. Stone

“ The bill of complaint alleges that petitioners are engaged in a conspiracy to eliminate exports of alkalies to the United States by the foreign members of the conspiracy; to restrict or eliminate exports of alkalies by domestic producers from the United States to many world markets; to prevent independent domestic producers from competing with petitioners, in the export of alkalies; to restrict their production of alkalies in the United States; and to fix prices of caustic soda in the United States, all in violation of § 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1. ”

“ Section 4 of the Sherman Act invests the several district courts with jurisdiction to restrain violations of the Act; and it imposes on district attorneys of the United States, under the direction of the Attorney General, the duty to institute suits in equity in their respective districts, to restrain such violations. ”

“ A fortiori no such purpose is to be inferred from the Webb-Pomerene Act, which has withheld from the Commission any authority to enforce the Sherman Act.
Petitioners appeal to the familiar principle that equity will not lend its aid to a plaintiff who has not first exhausted his administrative remedies. ”

“ Such investigations by the Commission have never been deemed prerequisite to antitrust suits by the United States; and there is nothing to suggest that Congress, in authorizing the Commission to investigate export associations, intended to place such investigations on any different footing than others, which the Commission had already been authorized to conduct. ”

“ It is evident that hardship is imposed on parties who are compelled to await the correction of an alleged error at an interlocutory stage by an appeal from a final judgment. But such hardship does not necessarily justify resort to certiorari or other of the extraordinary writs as a means of review. ”

“ Petitioners do not question the district court's rulings, in denying their motion, that the complaint alleges violations of the Sherman Act, and that under its allegations petitioners are not within any immunity from the Sherman Act secured by § 2 of the Webb-Pomerene Act. ”

“ The writs may not be used as a substitute for an authorized appeal; and where, as here, the statutory scheme permits appellate review of interlocutory orders only on appeal from the final judgment, review by certiorari or other extraordinary writ is not permissible in the face of the plain indication of the legislative purpose to avoid piecemeal reviews. ”

“ Section 5 further provides in its second paragraph that whenever the Commission shall have reason to believe that an export association is violating the Sherman Act in the ways excepted by the provisos of § 2 from its exemptions, the Commission shall conduct an investigation into the alleged violations. ”