36 BULLETIN 1106, TT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 
market for blue-grass seed and suppress competition. The scheme 
involved the fixing of the price to be paid for seed, the distribution 
among themselves of seed offered for sale, the price at which seed 
should be sold, and the sharing of profits and losses. The defendant 
entered into a contract with a secret agent of plaintiff under which 
he agreed to sell a quantity of blue-grass seed. He refused to carry 
out his contract, and suit was brought against him. The Supreme 
Court of Kentucky, in holding the contract invalid as part of an 
unlawful scheme, said * * * 
Taking for a foundation the principle that illegal and unreasonable restraint 
of trade is obnoxious to the spirit of the law * * * this principle will be 
extended * * * to embrace every condition in which an unlawful attempt 
is made to restrain trade and control the market and suppress competition by 
whatever means these ends are sought to be accomplished. 
This case illustrates another well-settled principle, namely, that 
where a contract is held to be in restraint of trade and has not been 
performed the court will refuse to enforce it or allow damages for 
its breach. The courts are practically unanimous in holding unlaw- 
ful all agreements and combinations by and between independent 
and separate dealers for the purpose of controlling or fixing the 
prices of commodities. 20 A combination to fix the price of an 
article of prime necessity was a criminal conspiracy at common 
law. 27 Many of the cases which have come before the courts involv- 
ing the propositions discussed under this heading are difficult to 
reconcile, and many of them are undoubtedly in conflict. The whole 
subject of monopolies and restraint of trade and allied matters is 
now more or less comprehensively dealt with by statutes. 
SHERMAN AND CLAYTON ACTS. 
In 1890 Congress passed the Sherman Act, the first section of 
which reads as follows: 
Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy 
in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign 
nations, is hereby declared to be illegal. Every person who shall make any 
such contract or engage in any such combination or conspiracy shall be deemed 
guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished by fine 
not exceeding $5,000 or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both 
said punishments, in the discretion of the court. 
The Clayton Act, which supplements the Sherman Act, was passed 
by Congress in 1914. The Sherman Act was construed in the Stand- 
ard Oil case in 1910, and it was held that it prohibited all contracts 
and combinations which amount to an unreasonable or undue re- 
straint of trade in interstate commerce. 28 This conclusion was 
- y R. C. L. 38 ; People v. Butler, (Mich.) 192 N. W. 685. 
27 16 R. C. L. 40; State r. Ericksan (Wash.), 103 Pac. 796. 
28 Standard Oil Co. v. United States, 221 U. S. 1. 
