jANl'.UtY 4, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



The Sheraian anlitrust law was enacted, 

 which forbids all combinations and con- 

 tracts in restraint of trade and monopoly. 

 Similar laws were enacted by the states. 

 Notwithstanding these laws, combination 

 and cooperation continued; and a long 

 series of suits have been brought by the 

 Attorney General of the United States to 

 enforce the Sherman law and dissolve un- 

 lawful trusts. But still cooperation ex- 

 isted everywhere, not by definite contracts, 

 but by mutual understanding, so that in 

 any given community the price for each 

 standard commodity was the same. How- 

 ever, the representatives of the people did 

 not surrender their faith that the remedy 

 was to restore the freedom of trade; and in 

 1915 the Clayton antitrust act was passed, 

 which attempted to bolster up the Sherman 

 act by introducing the new restrictive 

 principle that any combination which re- 

 sulted in substantial lessening of competi- 

 tion was unlawful. 



Thus antecedent to the war, .so far as 

 the control of production and distribution 

 of commodities were concerned, we were 

 mainly dependent upon the law of supply 

 and demand with competition and upon 

 repressive laws which should prevent co- 

 operation and allow a free flow of trade. 



Regulation Before the War 

 Regulation, however, had begun. It had 

 become recognized that the public utilities 

 occupied an exceptional position. 



The Public Vtilities. — All business and 

 industry are so dependent upon transpor- 

 tation, and the public convenience was so 

 interested in having good service without 

 discrimination that, for the railroads and 

 other public utilities, regulation had been 

 adopted as a national policy through the 

 enactment of the Interstate Commerce law 

 and the various state public utilities laws. 

 It is difiSeult to recall the bitter opposition 



which the proposal to regulate the public 

 utilities aroused when it was first made. 

 The owners of the stocks and bonds said the 

 railroads were private property, in the con- 

 trol of which the public should have no 

 part. These ideas bring a smile now; but 

 the older men among us remember the 

 fierce contest running through years, be- 

 fore it was established that the public had 

 such an interest in the utilities as to re- 

 quire their regulation. 



The Pure Food and Drug Acts. — At an- 

 other point, it appeared that the laws of 

 supply and demand and competition were 

 not adequate to control commerce. It was 

 the theory of those who held these doc- 

 trines in an extreme form that supply and 

 demand and competition would result in 

 securing quality, because poor goods or 

 spurious goods could not compete with good 

 materials. But, after the period of con- 

 centration came on, it was found as a mat- 

 ter of fact that food and drugs wei'c ex- 

 tensively sold of inferior quality and even 

 dangerous character under false names. 

 After a prolonged contest, the pure food 

 and drug laws were enacted by Congress 

 and by the several states. The manufac- 

 turers of food and drugs denounced these 

 regulatory measures as an interference with 

 private business. It seems odd to us now 

 that any one should consider it a right to 

 sell a food or a drug under a false name. 

 It seems even more strange that the right 

 to sell diseased meats should be regarded 

 as sacred. But this is so recent that prob- 

 ably all here remember the severe struggle 

 to establish the principle that meat should 

 be inspected and found wholesome before 

 being placed upon the market. 



During the contest for public control, 

 those who advocated the regulation of the 

 public utilities and foods and drugs were 

 often denounced as socialists and were held 

 up for opprobrium as being in favor of the 



