TRANSPORTATION AND MARKETING 287 



ing agreements, it was necessary to devise a -plan of 

 organization which would avoid a violation of the 

 statutes of the State prohibiting combinations in 

 restraint of trade and for the purpose of curtailing 

 production and the enhancement of prices otherwise 

 than through the ordinary operations of the market. 

 Such statutes had been enacted by the legislatures 

 of 1899 and 1905, which declared it "unlawful for 

 two or more persons, firms, partnerships, corpora- 

 tions or associations of persons, or any two or more 

 of them, to make or enter into or execute or carry 

 out any contracts, obligations or agreements of any 

 kind or description by which they shall bind or have 

 bound themselves not to sell, dispose of or transport 

 any article or any conmiodity, or any article of trade, 

 use, merchandise, commerce or consumption below a 

 common standard figure or fixed value, or by which 

 they shall agree in any manner to keep the price 

 of such article, commodity or transportation at a 

 fixed or graduated figure, or ])y which they shall in 

 any manner establish or settle the price of any article, 

 commodity or transportation between them or them- 

 selves and others, so as to directly or indirectly pre- 

 clude a free and unrestricted competition among 

 themselves, or any purchasers or consumers, in the 

 sale or transportation of any such article or com- 

 modity, or by which they shall agree to pool, combine 

 or directly or indirectly unite any interests that they 

 may have connected with the sale or transportation 

 of any such article or commodity, that its price might 

 in any manner be affected. Every such trust as 



