Wiley Blount Rutledge

“ The idea that stabilization of prices paid for the only raw material consumed in an industry has no influence toward reducing competition in the distribution of the finished product, in an integrated industry such as this, is impossible to accept. By their agreement the combination of refiners acquired not only a monopoly of the raw material but also and thereby control of the quantity of sugar manufactured, sold and shipped interstate from the northern California producing area. ”

“ For mere change in the form of the commodity or even complete change in essential quality by intermediate refining, processing or manufacturing does not defeat application of the statute to practices occurring either during those processes or before they begin, when they have the effects forbidden by the Act. [19] Again, as we have said, the vital thing is the effect on commerce, not the precise point at which the restraint occurs or begins to take effect in a scheme as closely knit as this in all phases of the industry. ”

“ We do not stop to consider specific and varied situations in which a change of form amounting to one in the essential character of the commodity takes place by manufacturing or processing intermediate the stages of producing and disposing of the raw material intrastate and later interstate distribution of the finished product ”

“ In substance and roughly, if not precisely, they allocated among themselves the market for California beets substantially upon the basis of quotas competitively established among them at the time the uniform price arrangement was agreed upon. It is hardly likely that any refiner would have entered into an agreement with its only competitors, the effect of which would have been to drive away its growers, or therefore that many of the latter would have good reason to shift their dealings within the closed circle. Thus control of quantity in the interstate market was enhanced. ”

“ So is it also to make conclusive comparisons with other industries in which the manufacturing process requires and has available a greater variety of raw materials for making the finished product, and involves a longer and more extensive process of change, than does extracting the sugar content of beets to make raw sugar.
We deal with the facts before us. With respect to others which may be significantly different, for purposes of violating the statute's terms and policy, we await another day. ”

“ The uniform agreement's effect, when added to this, is to deprive the grower of the advantage of the individual efficiency of the refiner with which he deals, in this case the most efficient of the three, and of the price that refiner receives. It is also to reflect in the grower's price the consequences of the combination's effects for reducing competition among the refiners in the interstate distribution of sugar. ”

“ It does not matter, contrary to respondent's view, that the growers contracting with the other two refiners may have been benefited, rather than harmed, by the combination's effects, even if that result is assumed to have followed. It is enough that these petitioners have suffered the injuries for which the statutory remedy is afforded. For the test of the legality and immunity of such a combination, in view of the statute's policy, is not that some others than the members of the combination have profited by it operation. ”

“ The Court there held first that the Sherman Act did not apply because the program was sponsored by the State of California. Contrary to the present suggestion, the opinion assumes that the relation between the intrastate and the interstate commerce in raisins was sufficient to justify federal regulation, if the state-sponsored program of prorating had been 'organized and made effective solely by virtue of a contract, combination or conspiracy of private persons, individual or corporate.' 317 U.S. at page 350, 63 S.Ct. ”

“ This effect was further magnified by the fact that the widely scattered location of sugar beet growing regions and their different accessibilities to market [22] give the refiners of each region certainly some advantage over growers and refiners in other regions, and undoubtedly large ones over those most distant from the segment of the interstate market served by reason of being nearest to hand. ”

“ Respondent takes this elision as effective to constitute an express disavowal by petitioners of any charge of restraint of trade in sugar, the only interstate commodity. The amendment did not eliminate or affect numerous other allegations which in effect repeated the charge in various forms and with reference to various specific effects upon interstate as well as local phases of the commerce. Some of these explicitly specified trade or commerce in sugar, [25] others designated the trade affected as interstate, which on the facts could mean only sugar. ”

“ Filburn, 317 U.S. 111, 63 S.Ct. 82, 87 L.Ed. 122, or the scope of the Sherman Act's coverage. The artificial and mechanical separation of 'production' and 'manufacturing' from 'commerce,' without regard to their economic continuity, the effects of the former two upon the latter, and the varying methods by which the several processes are organized, related and carried on in different industries or indeed within a single industry, no longer suffices to put either production or manufacturing and refining processes beyond reach of Congress' authority or of the statute. ”

“ Respondent, on the contrary, broadly severs the phase or phases of growing and selling beets from the later ones of refining them and of marketing the sugar. The initial growing process together with sale of the beets, and it would seem also the intermediate stage of refining, are taken to be 'purely local,' since all occurred entirely within California ”

“ Little more remains to be said concerning the amended complaint. The allegations comprehend all that we have set forth. We do not stop to restate them, leaving their substance at this point for reference to the summary made at the beginning of this opinion.
Respondent has presented its argument as if the amended complaint omitted all reference to restraint or effects upon interstate trade in sugar and confined these allegations to the trade in beets. ”

“ It is true that the first decision under the Sherman Act applied those mechanical distinctions with substantially nullifying effects for coverage both of the power and of the Act. United States v. E. C. Knight Co., 156 U.S. 1, 15 S.Ct. 249, 39 L.Ed. 325. Like this one, that case involved the refining and interstate distribution of sugar. ”

“ The District Court then held that since no beets whatever moved in interstate commerce and since there was no charge in the amended complaint that the cost or quality of the product which did move in interstate commerce was in any way affected, no cause of action was stated. ”

“ Indeed, it and succeeding decisions, embracing the same artificially drawn lines, produced a series of consequences for the exercise of national power over industry conducted on a national scale which the evolving nature of our industrialism foredoomed to reversal. ”

“ And their dominant position, together with the obstacles created by the necessity for large capital investment and the time required to make it productive, makes outlet through new competition practically impossible. Upon the allegations, it is absolutely so for any single growing season. A tighter or more all-inclusive monopolistic position hardly can be conceived. ”

“ All these factors and perhaps others combine to make the refining stage of the industry a specialized manufacturing one to be carried on separately from growing, to establish the refiners' key place in the entire industry, and thus to leave the growers completely at the refiners' mercy for the profitable production of beets except as the latter may compete among themselves.↑ See note 20.↑ It is suggested that Parker v. ”

“ In order to expedite decision and review upon the Sherman Act contention, by stipulation the amended complaint was filed setting forth, with an amendment to be noted, see note 5, only the allegations of the Sherman Act count. ”

“ Employers' Liability Cases, 207 U.S. 463, 498, 28 S.Ct. 141, 145, 52 L.Ed. 297, with Virginian R. Co. v. Federation, 300 U.S. 515, 557, 57 S.Ct. 592, 604, 81 L.Ed. 789, and Weiss v. United States, 308 U.S. 321, 60 S.Ct. 269, 84 L.Ed. 298; New York Life Insurance Co. v. ”