250 F. 908 | D. Mass. | 1916
This indictment relates to the same alleged combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade on which the previous indictment in this court against the same defendants was based. Much of what was said in the opinion on the demurrer in that case applies here and need not be restated.
It is now contended by the defendants that their association is an agricultural organization within the Clayton Act, and that they are not therefore subject to prosecution, even assuming that otherwise they would be. That act provides as follows:
“That the tabor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce. Nothing contained in the anti-trust laws shall he construed to forbid the existence and operation of labor, agricultural, or horticultural organizations, instituted for the purposes of mutual help, and not having capital stock or conducted for profit, or to forbid or restrain individual members of such organizations from lawfully carrying out the legitimate objects thereof; nor shall such organizations, or the members thereof, be held or construed to be illegal combinations or conspiracies in restraint of trade, under the antitrust laws.” Act Oct. 15, 1914, c. 823, § 6, 38 Stat. 731 (Comp. St. 1916, § 8S351).
The defendants’ contention is that the Aroostook Potato Shippers’ Association (a) was an agricultural organization, (b) that it was instituted for the purpose of mutual help, (c) that it had no capital stock and was not conducted for profit, (d) that in doing the acts here complained of it was lawfully carrying out its legitimate objects, and (e) that all these facts appear from the indictment.
Various other grounds of demurrer are assigned and have been considered. None of them seems to me well grounded nor to require comment.
Demurrer overruled.