William O. Douglas Quotes
Possible economies cannot be used as a defense to illegality. Congress was aware that some mergers which lessen competition may also result in economies but it struck the balance in favor of protecting competition.
A justification of some mergers that would lessen competition was that the consumer would not be harmed as the merger will produce cost savings that could be passed on to the consumers. However, others argued that if the competition were reduced there would be no pressure on the merged companies to pass any savings along to the consumer. However, in this opinion, Justice Douglas set forth a basic principle of regulatory law: Even though the merger might have some consumer benefits, that is still no justification for doing.
William O. Douglas, 1898-1980, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Chairman, Security & Exchange Commission, FTC v. Procter & Gamble Co, 1967
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Here, an officer of a large corporation (Pittsburgh Plate Glass) makes the classic argument of large corporations about the anti-trust laws which prevent them from using their economic power to crush competition. The claim that the large corporations are at a disadvantage and handicapped in competing with small companies is easily refuted by the bankruptcy rate of small businesses which is large, and that of large corporations which is very small, and that of major monopolies which is virtually zero.
See {642189} where Sherman explained some of the reasons for the law.
Brandeis was U. S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1856-1941, who wrote that competition would control prices if only healthy competition could be maintained—the problem was resolved by both increasing competition and much more stringent regulation of corporations.
To the modern reader utterances such as this from a Conservative Prime Minister seem astounding. However, the Great Depression existed in Canada as well as the United States, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was not the only world leader who would reach the conclusion that business and capitalism must be profoundly regulated and the system changed if it was to be saved.
William Orville Douglas was an American jurist and politician who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Douglas was confirmed at the age of 40, one of the youngest justices appointed to the court. His term, lasting 36 years and 211 days (1939–75), is the longest in the history of the Supreme Court. In 1975, Time magazine called Douglas "the most doctrinaire and committed civil libertarian ever to sit on the court."
