137 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
137 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 12 Num. 24
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=======================================
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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JAMES B. DILL AND THE NEW JERSEY TRUST LAWS
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[Excerpts, below, except where indented, from *The Autobiography
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of Lincoln Steffens*]
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"Amalgamated Copper was begotten in 1898, born in 1899, and
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in the first five years of its existence plundered the
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public to the extent of over $100 million. It was a
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creature of that incubator of trust and corporation frauds,
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the State of New Jersey." -- Thomas W. Lawson (qtd. in CN
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11.10)
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James B. Dill was the man who put through in the State of New
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Jersey the laws to enable the organization of trusts and combines
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[monopolies], to free corporations, to free them to do whatever
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they pleased.
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"On April 6, 1998, the largest merger in history occurred:
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Citicorp and The Travelers Group joined to become
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Citigroup. (Hmmm..... Do you think there are going to be
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layoffs at Citigroup?) In the April 27, 1998 issue of The
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Nation magazine, the interesting legal strategy behind the
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merger is noted. It seems that the merger between Citicorp
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and Travelers =is illegal=. But, writes Doug Henwood, 'the
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parties figure they can get the law changed. If you're
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rich enough, you can present the government with a *fait
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accompli* and have the law you'd like to violate
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repealed.'" -- CN 12.07
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James B. Dill was the man who brought Andrew Carnegie and J.P.
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Morgan together for the purchase and sale of the Carnegie steel
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properties and so laid the basis of the United States Steel
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Company, the biggest transaction and the biggest trust of those
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days [ca. 1890s].
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April 13, 1998: NationsBank Corporation merges with
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BankAmerica Corporation. "The new asset maintains accounts
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for 30 percent of the nation's households." ("Notebook,"
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by Lewis H. Lapham. Harper's magazine, August 1998.)
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James B. Dill was always spoken of with awe as "James B. Dill."
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No familiarity with him; Mr. Morgan might be "J.P."; he was
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called that, but James B. Dill was always and only a name, a
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mystery, a wonder-worker in those terrible days when the
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reorganization of the debris of [the Panic of 1893] was
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beginning. No one but the masters ever saw him, and I thought of
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him as a silent, thinking, conspiring lawyer who sat still in the
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big back room of a great suite of offices.
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May 7, 1998: Daimler-Benz acquires the Chrysler
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Corporation. (Source: Lapham; op. cit.)
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For there was, at that time, a very general popular discontent,
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the choral accompaniment of the hard times; and the passion of
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the day was the anti-trust sentiment, which was a development of
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the old anti-monopoly cry of the earlier period.
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May 11, 1998: SBC Communications acquires the Ameritech
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Corporation and takes possession of one-third of the
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nation's phone lines. (Source: Lapham; op. cit.)
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One day some morning newspaper printed a "roast" of James B.
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Dill, the author of the criminal New Jersey trust laws. It
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showed how that State had enacted statutes under which the
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anti-trust laws of other States could be evaded and American
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public opinion defied. The article showed what was permitted:
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plain financial crimes.
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May 21, 1998: The Seagram Company (Bronfman family; MCA
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records, Decca) buys PolyGram. "The new company amounts to
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nearly 25 percent of the American popular-music business."
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(Source: Lapham; op. cit.)
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This clipping was handed to me, with instructions to go and see
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Mr. James B. Dill and get his denial or correction of these
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charges. Mr. Dill met me with a smiling welcome. "The abuses of
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the Jersey Trust laws must be exposed and stopped," he said.
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"Yes," he added, as he glanced at the clipping, "yes, all that is
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true, and more, much more." And to my amazement he opened up the
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criminal inside of the practices under the New Jersey
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legislation, a picture of such chicanery and fraud, of wild
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license and wrong-doing, that I could not, I dared not, take it
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all down; I was too confused.
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June 1, 1998: American Home Products Corporation (Advil,
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Robitussin, Preparation H) acquires Monsanto Company
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(NutraSweet, Daypro, Demulen) for $34.4 billion in stock.
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(Source: Lapham; op. cit.)
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"You are astonished?" Dill asked. "And well you may be. But
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you must write what I tell you. Don't quote me."
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Why had he, of all men, provided ammunition for the exposure of
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the James B. Dill laws of New Jersey?
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"Why, Dr. Innocent," he said, "I was advertising my wares and the
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business of my State. When you and the other reporters wrote
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about what financiers could and did actually do in Jersey, you
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were advertising our business -- free. For financiers are dubs.
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They have to be told, and they have to be told plain so that they
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get it, and so, as I say, while I gave you the facts to roast us
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with, what you wrote as 'bad' struck business men all over the
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United States as good, and they poured in upon us to our profit
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to do business with us to their profit."
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+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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For related stories, visit:
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http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those
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of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
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I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
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New mailing list: leave message in the old hollow tree stump.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Want to know more about Whitewater, Oklahoma City bombing, etc?
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(1) telnet prairienet.org (2) logon as "visitor" (3) go citcom
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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