20 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
OPERATION OF THE RESTRAINT OF TRADE ACTS 
Extracts From the Forthcoming Annual Report of the Secretary 
of Commerce for the Fiscal Year 1921-22 
The country lias now had many years’ experience with the 
restraint of trade acts; they have received constant interpreta¬ 
tion by the courts, and the working results in our economic fab¬ 
ric in some directions are out of tune with our economic devel¬ 
opment. No one would contend that there be relaxation in the 
restraints against undue capital combinations, monopoly, price 
fixing, domination, unfair practices, and the whole category of 
collective action damaging to public interest. There has been, 
however, a proiound growth of understanding of the need and 
possibilities of cooperative action in business that is in the in¬ 
terest of public welfare. Some parts of these cooperative efforts 
are inhibited by law to-day, but, of much wider result, many are 
stifled out of fear or shackled from uncertainty of the law. The 
two latter factors are far more widespread than can be appre¬ 
ciated except through wide contact with economic activities, 
and they definitely impede our national progress upon right 
lines. Relaxation of the acts has already been given by legisla¬ 
tion in favor of the farmer and trades-unions, but the farmer 
and laborer are being even more greatly injured by these de¬ 
structive shakles upon business in many directions, which pio- 
duce instability of employment and increase distribution costs, 
than they were by the direct influence of these acts upon their 
own affairs. 
Abuses Leading to Legislation. 
At the time the Sherman Act was passed the country was in 
the throes of growing consolidations of capital. These were 
consolidations of- actual ownership, and the country was alive 
with deserved complaint of domination in business, in attempts 
to crush competitors with unfair practices and destructive com¬ 
petition. Collective action in its sense of benefit to public in¬ 
terest was much less known and, at any rate, was probably not 
contemplated as coming within the meaning of the act. In any 
event there is a wide difference between the whole social con¬ 
ception of capital combinations against public interest and co¬ 
operative action between individuals which may be profoundly 
in the public interest. The former extinguishes individualism 
through domination; the latter greatly advances it and protects 
it. Cooperative action has, however, struggled for development 
through the growth of chambers of commerce, trade associa¬ 
tions, and conferences of one kind and another in an effort to 
meet various sorts of crises, to improve business standards, and 
to eliminate waste in production and distribution. 
Greater Need for Cooperative Action. 
It is true that some minority of such activities has been used 
as a cloak for action against public interest, but it is also true 
that a vast amount of action in public interest has been lost 
and 'even great national calamities brought upon us by lack of 
cooperative action. A case in point is that the instability of the 
bituminous-coal industry and the disintegration of its employers’ 
associations by pressure under the restraint of trade acts con¬ 
tributed directly to the prolongation of the' coal strike, as no 
adequate organization of operators existed which could meet 
and bargain with the workers, who were free from all restraint. 
The whole movement toward cooperative action arises from a 
fundamental need to which we must give heed. Where the ob¬ 
jectives of cooperation are to eliminate waste in production and 
distribution, to increase education as to better methods of busi¬ 
ness, to expand research in processes of production, to take col¬ 
lective action in policing business ethics, to maintain standards 
of quality, to secure adequate representation of problems before 
the Government and other economic groups and to improve con¬ 
ditions of labor, to negotiate collectively with highly organized 
groups of labor, to prevent unemployment, to supply informa¬ 
tion equally to members and to the public upon which better 
judgment may be formulated in the conduct of business; then 
these activities are working in public interest. There are some 
twenty-odd different functions of cooperative action which are 
at same time in the interest of the different trades and the com¬ 
munity at large. Any collective activity can be used as a cloak 
for conspiracy against public interest, as can any meeting of 
men engaged in business; but it does not follow because bricks 
have been used for murder that we should prohibit bricks. 
There is, moreover, a very wide differentiation between cooper¬ 
ative action open to an entire trade or region of a trade and 
capital combinations, because the former may be dissolved in¬ 
stantly without any disturbance of capital or production and 
does not represent increasing domination of a group of individ¬ 
uals in a trade, but the democratic development of a whole in¬ 
dustry. 
It has often been argued that the original intent of the re¬ 
straint of trade acts was not to inhibit any sort of economic 
collective action which was in the interest of public welfare, and 
that the time has come when the act should be limited so as to 
leave free all such action. Without entering upon debate as to 
the difficulties of such a course it is possible to consider a nar¬ 
rower field of liberalization of law; that is, for the law to be 
liberalized to the extent that cooperative organizations general¬ 
ly, as distinguished from capital consolidations, should be per¬ 
mitted to file with some appropriate governmental agency the 
plan of their operations, the functions they proposed to carry 
on, and the objectives they proposed to reach; that upon approval 
such of these functions as did not apparently contravene public 
interest might be proceeded with; that upon complaint, how¬ 
ever, either of individuals or the law officers of the Government 
that these functions had reacted against public interest, then 
after a hearing before some suitable tribunal the right to con¬ 
tinue these particular functions should, if the complaints are 
justified, be suspended. If thereafter these functions were contin¬ 
ued, or if it should be proved that the activities had been ex¬ 
tended beyond the functions in the original proposals, the or¬ 
ganization should be likewise subject to prosecution under the 
present acts. Parties who did not wish to avail themselves of 
this privilege could continue in the present status. 
All who know th© situation in such matters will realize that 
the problems of cooperative action are mainly the concern of the 
smaller businesses. Such a measure as that suggested above 
would serve actually to protect small business and thus to main¬ 
tain competition. Big business takes care of itself. Legitimate 
trade associations and other forms of business cooperation 
would be greatly stimulated along lines of public welfare if 
such a plan were adopted. 
It appears to me that the time has come when we should take 
cognizance of these necessities if we are to have a progressive 
economic system. Its growing complexity, its shift of objective 
and service, require a determination based upon a proper sense 
of maintenance of long-view competition, initiative, business 
stabilty, and public interest. 
TESTIMONIAL 
It may have been because Representative Mann, who 
lias just been called by death, was born on a farm that 
he was such a great lover of plants. Those who have 
known him intimately in Washington for the past twen¬ 
ty-five years found him always ready to work for any 
plan or project looking to the advancement of horticul¬ 
ture in this country. 
He was particularly interested in trees, and spent as 
much of liis time as could be spared from his multitudin¬ 
ous duties at the Capitol in collecting tree seeds in the 
various parks of Washington and in the surrounding 
country. It was not an uncommon sight in the fall of 
the year to see Mr. Mann with his pockets bulging with 
acorns and other seeds he had gathered. These seeds 
were sent to many of his friends, and quantities of seed¬ 
lings were grown by him for widespread distribution. 
For years Mr. Mann maintained a little private nursery 
near Chicago, where many thousands of plants were 
propagated by him and distributed to those who loved 
such things. Mr. Mann was particularly fond of roses 
and had a large collection of such plants. His great 
pride, however, was in his peony collection. For years 
he searched the world for new rare specimens of those 
plants, and his collection is one of the largest and best 
in the United States. Mr. Mann went quietly about his 
horticultural work, but when the records are made 
known, it will be found that during his long and useful 
life as a public servant and private citizen he has left a 
heritage in this field that will not soon be forgotten. 
