United States of America v. Motion Picture Patents Company and others (1914)

15 is a most significant fact. The International Harvester Company, in its defense in the suit brought by the Government, put on the stand scores of witnesses, manufacturers of all kinds of agricultural implements, who were asked to describe the business methods employed by the International Harvester Company. They put hundreds of retail dealers on the stand to testify that they had never been coerced by that company which the Government maintained was an unlawful combination. They put hundreds of farmers on the stand to give similar testimony. As stated above, not a single competitor of defendants has testified in this case that the defendants were fair and reasonable in the conduct of their business and in their relations to competitors. On the other hand, numerous Government witnesses, manufacturers, rental exchangemen and exhibitors, testified at great length and in much detail on this subject. Much of this testimony is reviewed in Part IX of the brief, pages 164 to 239. None of the testimony so given was contradicted by any of the defendants' witnesses. That is to say, in no case did the defendants dispute the fact that the supply of film had been cut off or that competitors had been put out of business as testified to by the Government witnesses. The only defense offered in any case was, that the rental exchangeman or exhibitor, who had been deprived of the service, had violated in some manner the restrictions and conditions im 79466—15 2