government took aim at tobacco as a prime target. 

 Between 1901 and 1909, Teddy Roosevelt, the "trust- 

 buster," brought suit against 44 trusts and conglomer- 

 ates—among them the tobacco combine. By the time of 

 the suit, most of the nation's prominent tobacco firms 

 had joined the Duke combine: Lorillard and McAlpin 

 of New York; Mayo, Wright and Patterson of Richmond; 

 Reynolds, Hanes and Brown of Winston; Beck of Chi- 

 cago; Scotten of Detroit; Bollman of San Francisco; Sorg 

 of Middletown; Finzer of Louisville, and others. By 

 1910 the group accounted for the vast majority of 

 the tobacco business. The original tobacco action was 

 started in 1907 and in its 1908 verdict, the U.S. Circuit 

 Court of New York stated: 



The record . . . does not indicate that there 

 has been any increase in the price of tobacco 

 products to the consumer. There is an absence 

 of persuasive evidence that by unfair compe- 

 tition or improper practices independent deal- 

 ers have been dragooned into . . . selling out. 

 . . . The price of leaf tobacco . . . has steadily 

 increased until it has nearly doubled, while at 

 the same time 150,000 additiojial acres have 

 been devoted to tobacco crops . . . new markets 

 have been opened in India, China and else- 

 where. 



But in the end, the combination was judged to have 

 restrained competition in violation of the Sherman Anti- 

 Trust Act and following a Supreme Court confirmation 

 in 1911, it was divided into four major companies— 

 the American Tobacco Company, R. J. Reynolds and 

 Co., Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company and P. Loril- 

 lard Company. Although the overall effect on the to- 

 bacco business was slight, the increase in competition 

 caused the cost of selling and advertising to increase 

 from $18.1 million in 1910 to $32.4 million in 1913. 



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