Sherman in Kentucky

In Lexington, Ky., in the U.S. tobacco belt, Thurman Arnold's anti-trust prosecutors this week won the biggest criminal prosecution ever brought to court under the Sherman Act. The $1,000,000,000-a-year tobacco industry's "Big Three" and 13 top executives were convicted by a jury of monopoly, conspiracy and price-fixing. The list of those convicted looked like a "Who's Who" of the industry: > American Tobacco Co. (Lucky Strikes) ; President George Washington Hill; Vice Presidents Paul M. Hahn and Vincent Riggio. Also convicted were American Suppliers, Inc. (an American subsidiary) and its President James E. Lipscomb Jr.

> R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (Camels); William N. Reynolds, its executive committee chairman; Board Chairman S. Clay Williams, former NRA chairman; President James A. Gray; Vice President James W. Glenn; Sales Manager Edward A. Darr.

> Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co. (Chesterfields); President James W. Andrews; Vice Presidents George W. Whitaker and Edward H. Thurston, Manufacture Manager William A. Blount.

The Government contended that its 1911 dissolution of the old American Tobacco trust had merely changed the form of the tobacco industry without changing its practices. The companies were charged with controlling the auction markets at which tobacco is sold, with agreeing not to compete for the same grade of tobacco at the same time. They were also charged with price-fixing to consumers, by agreeing on wholesale prices for cigarets.

The companies denied all the charges, will probably carry their case to the Supreme Court. Their contention, as presented to the jury by American Tobacco's Attorney George Whiteside: the Government's real complaint was that the companies were "guilty of the unpardonable sin of success."

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