U. S. v. Sugar Institute

U.S. v. Sugar Institute

For the Government there were two lawyers, for the defense 50. The Gov- ernment's brief was a bound volume of 520 pages, the defense's a volume of 1,000 pages. The testimony filled 10,000 pages and the exhibits filled a 10 ft. shelf. The action was brought in 1931 and the six- month trial in 1932 was one of the longest on record. There was no jury, no spectators. Concluded last year, U. S. v. Sugar Institute, Inc. et al. was the most important anti-trust case since the dissolution of Standard Oil Co. in 1911.

Last week, after more than a year of pondering, Federal Judge Julian William Mack in Manhattan handed down a 100,000-word opinion. The decision: the Sugar Institute, a trade association representing 99% of the sugar refined in the U. S., operated in violation of the anti- trust laws and was guilty of conspiracy in restraint of trade. But: "While most of the relief asked by the Government must be granted, the dissolution of the Institute . . . need not be decreed."

Judge Mack admitted that the anarchy of the sugar trade at the time the Institute was founded in 1927 fully justified drastic action. "Divorced from its illegalities the Institute offers certain opportunities for effecting desirable results," said the Judge. "In most of their activities, however, they [Institute members] have . . . gone much further than was necessary to accomplish their end. . . . The record has revealed a striking absence of effort on the defendants' part to approach their solution in a truly disinterested and constructive spirit. Too often they have disregarded the true facts and the interests of distributors and consumers. . . . They have contended that their guiding motive has been the elimination of secret discrimination, fraud and waste. ... It is clear that their dominant aim was to preserve uniformity in price structure and to maintain relatively high prices to relieve themselves of burdensome and competitive devices."

But Judge Mack was acutely aware of the fact that the significance of U. S. v. Sugar Institute has dwindled rapidly with the rise of the trade association under the NRA to the position of a quasi-public body. The Sugar Institute has not yet been dignified with administrative powers of most other trade associations, for sugar refiners are still drafting a code. Though anti-trust prosecution and the NRA are by no means irreconcilable. Judge Mack made haste to wash his hands of the whole question. Preparing to grant the injunction which the Government will ask. Judge Mack said: "If and when a code shall have been approved for this industry the injunction decree may be modified or suspended to the extent, if any, made necessary."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.