Sherman Anti Trust Act Quotes

“Combination” was then a word for a large corporate enterprise, monopoly or trust. Although large corporations are common in the modern economy, at the time there were very few of them and most of them use their power to crush competition and take advantage of helpless consumer. Instead of banning largeness as some wanted to do, President Theodore Roosevelt and others chose regulation, and the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act were passed. Individualism in the form of small businesses have proved amazingly resilient and have developed into a giants like Microsoft and a Google. Over half a of the new jobs created in our economy are done so by small businesses.

Standard Oil was found guilty after over 400 witnesses of violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the company was broken up. However this quotation and {629196} were crucial in the decision against Standard. Very often, the defense of the successful monopolist is that the industry could not have been made successful other than the way he did it.

Draft language is sometimes attributed to Senator George F. Hoar.

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.

If he had said “No” he would have been guilty of perjury and risk jail. Yet he did not want to admit that he and his company had bribed many legislators to obtain favorable legislation which was a crime then. Congress changed the system so that wealthy men and companies could legally make “campaign donations”.

In 1911 the Supreme Court upheld the monopoly conviction of Standard Oil Company but held that the Sherman Antitrust Act only applied to “unreasonable” monopolies and not to monopolies in general.