284 Presidential Addresses 



the Federal Salt Company a corporation which 

 had been organized under the laws of an Eastern 

 State, but had its main office and principal place of 

 business in California and against a number of 

 other companies and persons constituting what was 

 known as the salt trust. These injunctions were 

 to restrain the execution of certain contracts be 

 tween the Federal Salt Company and the other de 

 fendants, by which the latter agreed neither to im 

 port nor buy or sell salt, except from and to the 

 Federal Salt Company, and not to engage or assist 

 in the production of salt west of the Mississippi 

 River during the continuance of such contracts. 

 As the result of these agreements the price of salt 

 had been advanced about four hundred per cent. A 

 temporary injunction order was obtained, which the 

 defendants asked the court to modify on the ground 

 that the anti-trust law had no application to con 

 tracts for purchases and sales within a State. The 

 Circuit Court overruled this contention and sustained 

 the Government's position. This practically con 

 cluded the case, and it is understood that in conse 

 quence the Federal Salt Company is about to be 

 dissolved and that no further contest will be made. 



The above is a brief outline of the most important 

 steps, legislative and administrative, taken during 

 the past eighteen months in the direction of solving, 

 so far as at present it seems practicable by national 

 legislation or administration to solve, what we call 

 the trust problem. They represent a sum of very 



