In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants (1913)

Page scan 00053 from In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants

Record Details:

Title:
In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants
Date:
1913
Publisher:
New York, Appeal Printing Co.
Volume:
In the District Court of the United States, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States of America, petitioner, vs. Motion Picture Patents Company, et al., defendants : record volume 2
Leaf #:
00053
Language:
English
Collection:
Government & Law and Early Cinema
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
These seven volumes contain the testimonies and supporting documents from the U.S. District Court's antitrust lawsuit against the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC). Formed in 1908, the MPPC (sometimes referred to asœ"the Edison Trust" or just "the Trust") sought to control the American film industry through pooling patents and demanding that producers and exhibitors acquire licenses to those patents. Independent producers and exhibitors, who refused to license the patents, argued that the MPPC was an unlawful monopoly. In 1912 and 1913, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania heard testimonies from both MPPC members, such as Siegmund Lubin, and "Independents" who later became Hollywood moguls, such as William Fox. Ultimately, in 1915, the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which found the MPPC in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and spelled the end for the already weakening MPPC. -- Eric Hoyt, 2012
Date Added:
September 12, 2024
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William Fox, Direct Examination. 671 ing upon any defendant here, it not being shown that 1 Mr. Waters is an official of any of these defendants. By Mr. Grosvenor: Q. Will you please state what was that conversation — what Mr. WTaters said? A. WTaters said, "Fox, I think you are foolish. I thought you had some sense before I called the big chief in, but I see it all went to pieces again." I said, "Now, Waters, I am willing to go along in my little way and run my little business, and I am not annoying anybody nor bothering anybody. I am trying to run an 2 honest business and get along." "Why," he said, "Fox, look here, don't you know that if I could get any assurance that the Motion Picture Patents Company would not cancel my license, the license of the Kinetograph Company, that I had, why," he said, "I would pay them all the money they gave me and twice as much as that." He said, "That would be a cinch, the way this business is now. If I was in the field, renting films, do you suppose I would have to be up here and be an employee of these people? But," he said, "I seen it coming. I knew the time was going to come when we had to get out, and I got out. That is all. Now, use a 3 little sense." He said, "I am running this concern here now, I am the general manager of the General Film Company, and when we meet in competition or in some other way, we are a great, big, gigantic wheel, and you are a little splinter. Every time we meet you, we have got to run over you and crush you, and get you out of the way, because you are a stumbling block. Wre hear about this every day of our life here. A customer walks into our office and complains we are charging too much money for the service we are giving him. We say, 'That is the best we can do.' Now, the next morning, we find out he is a customer of 4 yours. If he wTas not a customer of yours, he would not be a customer of anyone else, we can charge him as we like, and do as we like. Now, you understand we must get you out of the way. You are the last one. We must have thought a lot of you to leave you the last fellow. Now, be sane." He said, "Eighty-nine or ninety thousand dollars; I think I can fix it for you and get you a hundred." I said, "Waters, I don't think you are going to do anything for me. You are probably going to let me run along, and if you are, I