Since they can be abolished so easily, do you not think that they ought to be, or else that those that fail to even try to repeal them should stop crying out against them at the top of their voices? We must not lay ourselves open to the charge of being mere demagogues. If the people want the trusts broken up or prevented they need only to elect governors and legislators who will carry out their will.

A schedule of assessments filed with the State Comptroller of New Jersey, on June 16, 1911, showed the tax levy against 7,008 corporations to be $2,478,928.13. Of these corporations the schedule indicated that 139 of them had capital stock issues to the extent of $10,000,000 or more, each. Twenty-eight of them had capital stock outstanding of more than $50,000,000 each, and six of them were in the one hundred million dollar class. The tax of the United States Steel Corporation, the largest on the list with a capital stock of $868,583,600, was assessed at $47,179.

THE SHERMAN LAW

An act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled:

Sec. 1. Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to be illegal. Every person who shall make any such contract, or engage in any such combination or conspiracy, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $5,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both said punishments in the discretion of the Court.

Sec. 2. Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by fine not exceeding $5,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the Court.

Sec. 3. Every contract, combination in form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce in any Territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, or in restraint of trade or commerce between any such Territory and another, or between any such

Territory or Territories and State or States or the District of Columbia, or with foreign nations, or between the District of Columbia, and any State or States or foreign nations, is hereby declared illegal. Every person who shall make any such contract or engage in any such combination or conspiracy, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding $5,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both said punishments in the discretion of the Court.

Sec. 4. The several Circuit Courts of the United States are hereby invested with jurisdiction to prevent and restrain violations of this act; and it shall be the duty of the several District-Attorneys of the United States, in their respective districts, under the direction of the Attorney-General, to institute proceedings in equity to prevent and restrain such violations. Such proceedings may be by way of petition setting forth the case and praying that such violation shall be enjoined or otherwise prohibited. When the parties complained of shall have been duly notified of such petition the Court shall proceed, as soon as may be, to the hearing and determination of the case; and pending such petition and before final decree, the Court may at any time make such temporary restraining order or prohibition as shall be deemed just in the premises.

Sec. 5. Whenever it shall appear to the Court before which any proceeding under Sec. 4 of this act may be pending, that the ends of justice require that other parties should be brought before the Court, the Court may cause them to be summoned, whether they reside in the district in which the Court is held or not; and subpoenas to that end may be served in any district by the marshal thereof.

Sec. 6. Any property owned under any contract or by any combination, or pursuant to any conspiracy (and being the subject thereof) mentioned in Sec. 1 of this act, and being in the course of transportation from one State to another, or to a foreign country, shall be forfeited to the United States, and may be seized and condemned by like proceedings as those provided by law for the forfeiture, seizure and condemnation of property imported into the United States contrary to law.

Sec. 7. Any person who shall be injured in his business or property by any other person or corporation by reason of anything forbidden or declared to be unlawful by this act may sue therefor in any Circuit Court of the United States in the district in which the defendant resides or is found, without respect to the amount in controversy, and shall recover threefold the damages by him sustained, and the costs of suit, including a reasonable attorney's fee.

Sec. 8. That the word "person" or "persons" wherever used in this act shall be deemed to include corporations and associations existing under or authorized by the laws of either the United States, the laws of any of the territories, the laws of any State or the laws of any foreign country. Approved July 2, 1890.

STANDARD OIL MONOPOLY

The decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States upholding the provisions of the anti-trust law invoked in the prosecution of the Trans-Missouri Freight Association, the Joint Traffic Association, and the Addyston Pipe & Steel Company, made it possible for the Government to institute proceedings for the dissolution of the gigantic combines. The first of these equity suits was brought against the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, and thirty-three other corporations, John D. Rockefeller, William Rockefeller and five other individual defendants in the United States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Missouri at St. Louis, on November 15, 1906. The bill charged the defendants with maintaining a combination in restraint of trade in the manufacture and sale of petroleum.

The Government's complaint explained that the coal oil industry in this country dated from the drilling of Drake's Well, on August 28, 1859, and that in 1865, John D. Rockefeller united in one firm the refineries controlled by himself, William Rockefeller, a Mr. Andrews, and H. M. Flagler. This, the original combination, was formed because the difficulties besetting refiners in 1865 were chiefly such as could be cured by an increase in capital. In 1861 the best wells were thirty miles from the railroads, and, owing to difficulties of transportation, petroleum had fallen from $20 a barrel to almost nothing. Two years later boats had begun carrying the crude oil and small pipe lines and branch railways had been built. In 1866 a more efficient refining method was invented, and the tank car began to replace the old flat car, with its wooden tubs. These changes called for much more capital than any of the oil men could command unassisted, and resulted in Mr. Rockefeller's determination to organize the leading producers into a union.

The years from 1865 to 1870 determined the most efficient unit of production, while the next seven years brought lower costs of transportation. Large refineries soon began to

manufacture their own barrels, cases, and materials used in their manufacturing processes.

The Standard Oil Company of Ohio was organized in 1870, with a capital of $1,000,000, and by an act of the Pennsylvania Legislature, the South Improvement Company was created in 1871. Of the two thousand shares, 900 were owned by H. M. Flagler, O. H. Payne, William Rockefeller, J. H. Bostwick, and J. D. Rockefeller. This company soon effected favorable contracts with the Pennsylvania, New York Central, and Erie Railroads, under which the oil company got rebates, while outsiders paid regular rates. Knowledge of this aroused great indignation throughout the oil region and before the South Improvement Company had an opportunity to enjoy the benefits of its arrangement, the Pennsylvania Legislature summarily destroyed its charter.

At the same time that Rockefeller and his associates were developing the business in the West, W. C. Warden was doing the same in Philadelphia, Lockhart in Pittsburg, and Charles Pratt in Brooklyn. In 1872 these men combined forces with the Rockefellers and formed what was known as the Standard Oil "Alliance," and then the capital of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio was increased to $3,500,000.

From 1874 to 1877 the company devoted itself to acquiring control of pipe lines. These became involved in a war with rival railroads, with the result that in 1874 freight charges from Chicago to the seaboard fell from $1 to 10 cents. New York Central and Erie lost millions, while the Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsylvania ceased paying dividends. On Oct. 17, 1877, the Pennsylvania abandoned the struggle and signed a contract giving the Standard Oil Company a practical monopoly of the production and transportation of oil in the United States. In 1878 and 1879 the Oil Trust owned or controlled by contract every transporting agent in the oil regions.

Under the trust agreement the stock of the various oil companies in the combine was placed in the hands of J. D. Rockefeller, O. N. Payne, William Rockefeller, J. A. Bostwick, H. M. Flagler, W. G. Warden, Charles Pratt, Ben

jamin Brewster, and John D. Archbold, the trustees, in return for which certificates were issued to the owners.

The Inter-State Commerce Act in 1887 forbade discriminations by railroads, and the Standard's special rates were abolished. In spite of that the company's growth and prosperity continued. Property of the various companies which entered the trust in 1887 was valued at $75,000,000. In 1892 the value was estimated at $122,000,000, and 50 per cent of the increase had come from profits invested. Dividends rose from 514 per cent in 1882 to 12 per cent in 1891.

In 1891 the State of Ohio began an action to oust the Standard Oil Company on the ground that it had become a party to an agreement against public policy. The court's decision in the following year made it necessary to dissolve the company. The trust dissolved into its constituent companies, and the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey was organized in 1899.

When the defendants filed answers in the dissolution suit, the Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, appointed Franklin Ferriss, as Special Examiner, to take the testimony in the case. At the hearings which covered a period of over two years, and were held in many states, Frank B. Kellogg appeared for the Government, and John G. Milburn, and Moritz Rosenthal represented the defendants.

The record of the case comprising 25,000 pages of 7,000,000 words and 1,500 exhibits, was submitted to Judges Elmer B. Adams of St. Louis; Willis A. Van Devanter of Cheyenne; William C. Hook of Leavenworth; and Walter H. Sanborn of St. Paul, all of the Eighth Circuit, and occupying the bench at the argument which took place in April, 1909.

The decision in the case declaring the Standard Oil Company to be a monopoly and illegal combination operating in restraint of trade in violation of the Sherman law, written by Judge Sanborn, and concurred in by his three associates, rendered on November 20, 1909, in part, was as follows:

Congress has power under the commercial clause of the Constitution to regulate and restrict the use, in commerce among the several States and with foreign nations, of contracts, of the method of holding title to prop