290 Missotiri Agricultural Rejmrt. 



the Supreme Court of Missouri in the case of State ex rel. Attor- 

 ney-General vs. Armour Packing Company, said: 



" 'Competition is the life of trade.' Pools, trusts and conspira- 

 cies to fix or maintain the prices of the necessaries of life strike at 

 the foundation of government ; instill a destructive poison into the 

 life of the body politic ; wither the energies of competitors ; blight 

 individual investments in legitimate business ; drive small and hon- 

 est dealers out of business for themselves, and make them mere 

 'hewers of wood and drawers of water' for the trust ; raise the cost 

 of living and lower the price of wages; take from the average 

 American freeman the ability to supply his family with necessary, 

 adequate and wholesome food; force the boys away from school 

 and into the various branches of trade and labor, and the girls 

 into workshops and other avenues of business, and make them 

 bread winners while they are yet almost infants, because the head 

 of the house cannot earn enough to feed and clothe his family. 



"The people are powerless to protect themselves. The powers 

 that be must protect them, or as surely as history records the story 

 of republican government in Rome, so surely will the foundations 

 of our government be shaken and its perpetuity threatened. 



"(A long line of decisions) have held statutes which prohib- 

 ited such combinations or trusts to be constitutional, and further, 

 that all such combinations or agreements are against public policy 

 and void at common law, and as a matter of American common 

 law, irrespective of whether there is any statute on the subject or 

 not." 



That is the voice of the law when it speaks of commercial 

 greed and aggrandizement. That is the expression of the court. 

 Notwithstanding the fact that the common law had never been 

 uncertain on this proposition of trusts, notwithstanding the anathe- 

 mas of the legislatures and the courts, they have continued un- 

 checked and unhampered in their growth and development. 



It was only when the people realized that these abuses, to 

 which I have referred, were caused by some business enterprises 

 unlawful in its plan of organization and illegal in its business 

 methods that they awoke to realization of the principles of morals 

 and law involved in the conduct of their commercial and industrial 

 life. Further than that, they came to realize the effect of having 

 a large part, if not the major part, of their trade and commerce 

 conducted by stealth, by lying and cheating, and by the violation 

 of every principle of honor and fairness. It was only when the 

 people realized the effect of these conditions upon our national life 



