Popular Law-making: A study of the origin, history, and present tendencies of law-making by statuteStimson, Frederic Jesup
History
Popular Law-making: A study of the origin, history, and present tendencies of law-making by statute
Stimson, Frederic Jesup
Legislation -- United States
the entering of firms or incorporated companies into an agreement or
combination, or the assignment of powers or stock to a central board,
and such trust certificates or other evidences of interest are
declared void. The Alabama statute of 1891 is to similar effect.
The Tennessee statute of 1891 is about the same as the Kansas statute
of 1889, above referred to, except that it adds the words "which tend
in any way to create a monopoly," and the Kansas statute makes trust
certificates unlawful, that being still the usual way of organizing a
trust at that time. The Nebraska law (Nebraska, 1889, 69) is much the
same, except that it also denounces combinations, etc., whereby
a common price shall be fixed and whereby any one or more of the
combining parties shall cease the sale or manufacture of such
products, or where the products or profits of such manufacture or
sale shall be made a common fund to be divided among parties to
the combination, and goes on to add that "pooling between persons,
partnerships, corporations ... engaged in the same or like business
for any purpose whatever, and the formation of combinations or common
understanding" between them is declared unlawful, and the persons are
made liable for the full damage suffered by persons injured thereby,
and each day of the continuance of any such pool or trust shall
constitute a separate offence; this, the doctrine of a continuing
conspiracy, being for the first time before the Supreme Court of the
United States at the time of writing. North Carolina the same year
(N.C., 1889, 374) defines a trust to be an arrangement, understanding,
etc. for the purpose of increasing or reducing the price beyond
what would be fixed by natural demand, and makes it a felony with
punishment up to ten years' imprisonment. Here for the first time
appears a statute against unfair competition. "Any merchant,
manufacturer ... who shall sell any ... goods ... for less than actual
cost for the purpose of breaking down competitors shall be guilty of
a misdemeanor." Tennessee the same year (Tennessee, 1899, 250) in its
elaborate statute, which is a fairly good definition of the law, also
denounces throwing goods on the market for the purpose of creating
an undue depression, whatever that may mean. In the next year, 1890,
there were many more State statutes, but we should first notice a
simple law of New York forbidding any stock corporation from combining
with any other corporation for the prevention of competition (N.Y.,
1890, 564, 7). The usual statute in other States of that year is
addressed against combinations to regulate or fix prices or limit
the output, but Texas (4847a, 1) and Mississippi (1890, 36, 1) have
elaborate laws, which, however, add hardly any new principles to the
common law. They define a trust to be a combination of capital, skill,
or acts, by two or more persons or corporations, (1) to create or
carry out restrictions in trade; (2) to limit or reduce the output, or
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account