Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

Examples of Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 in the following topics:

• From Competition to Consolidation

  • The consequence was federal legislation: the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 established the first federal administrative agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission.
  • The political parties got the message: In 1888, both Republicans and Democrats put an antitrust plank in their platforms.
  • The result was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, sponsored by Senator John Sherman, of Ohio.
  • Senator Sherman and other sponsors declared that the act had roots in a common-law policy that frowned on monopolies.
  • Nevertheless, passage of the Sherman Act did not end the public clamor, because fifteen years passed before a national administration began to enforce the act, when President Theodore Roosevelt—"the Trustbuster"sent his attorney general after the Northern Securities Corporation, a transportation holding company.

• Rockefeller and the Oil Industry

  • In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act — the source of all American anti-monopoly laws.
  • The Standard Oil group quickly attracted attention from antitrust authorities leading to a lawsuit filed by Ohio Attorney General David K.
  • In 1904, Standard controlled 91% of production and 85% of final sales.
  • In 1909, the US Department of Justice sued Standard under federal anti-trust law, the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, for sustaining a monopoly and restraining interstate commerce.
  • On May 15, 1911, the US Supreme Court upheld the lower court judgment and declared the Standard Oil group to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

• Robber Barons and the Captains of Industry

  • This might have been through increased productivity, expansion of markets, providing more jobs, or acts of philanthropy.
  • The result was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, sponsored by Senator John Sherman, of Ohio.
  • The purpose of the Sherman Antitrust Act is not to protect competitors from harm from legitimately successful businesses, nor to prevent businesses from gaining honest profits from consumers, but rather to preserve a competitive marketplace to protect consumers from abuses.
  • Senator Sherman and other sponsors declared that the act had roots in a common-law policy that frowned on monopolies.
  • Nevertheless, passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act did not end the public clamor; 15 years passed before a national administration began to enforce the act, when President Theodore Roosevelt, known as "the Trustbuster," sent his attorney general after the Northern Securities Corporation, a transportation holding company.

• Monopolies, Mergers, and Restructuring

  • Such concerns gave rise to two major laws aimed at taking apart or preventing monopolies: the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 and the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914.
  • In general, government antitrust officials see a threat of monopoly power when a company gains control of 30 percent of the market for a commodity or service.
  • While antitrust laws may have increased competition, they have not kept U.S. companies from getting bigger.
  • That represented one of the largest divestitures ever mandated by antitrust agencies.
  • But federal antitrust agencies have given their blessings to some joint ventures they believe will yield benefits.

• Regulation

  • Congress enacted a law regulating railroads in 1887 (the Interstate Commerce Act), and one preventing large firms from controlling a single industry in 1890 (the Sherman Antitrust Act).
  • The Sherman Antitrust Act is a landmark federal statute in the history of United States antitrust law passed by Congress in 1890.
  • The purpose of the Sherman Act is not to protect competitors from harm from legitimately successful businesses, nor to prevent businesses from gaining honest profits from consumers, but rather to preserve a competitive marketplace to protect consumers from abuses.
  • President Theodore Roosevelt sued 45 companies under the Sherman Act, while William Howard Taft sued 75.
  • In 1911 the Supreme Court agreed that in recent years (1900–1904) Standard had violated the Sherman Act.

• Antitrust Laws

  • This process, though long and arduous, was enabled by the Sherman Act and Federal Trade Commission Act and substantially improved the competitive nature of the computer industry.
  • United States (U.S.) - In the U.S., antitrust policy finds its roots in 1890 with the Sherman Antitrust Act.
  • The Sherman Act dealt with avoiding or limiting the power of trusts, or essentially the creation of price-controlling cartels.
  • This act was expanded upon in 1914, with two more competitive laws: The Clayton Antitrust Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.
  • Both of these acts sought to organize a governmental body equipped to protect consumers from unfair competitive practices.

• Federal Efforts to Control Monopoly

  • The Sherman Antitrust Act, passed in 1890, declared that no person or business could monopolize trade or could combine or conspire with someone else to restrict trade.
  • In 1914, Congress passed two more laws designed to bolster the Sherman Antitrust Act: the Clayton Antitrust Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act.
  • The Clayton Antitrust Act defined more clearly what constituted illegal restraint of trade.
  • The Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department watch for potential monopolies or act to prevent mergers that threaten to reduce competition so severely that consumers could suffer.
  • As these examples demonstrate, it is not always easy to define when a violation of antitrust laws occurs.

• Republican Reform Under Harrison

  • Harrison quickly saw the enactment of the Dependent and Disability Pension Act in 1890, a cause he had championed while in Congress.
  • In addition to providing pensions to disabled Civil War veterans, regardless of the cause of their disability, the Act depleted some of the troublesome federal budget surplus.
  • The Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibited business combinations that restricted trade, and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required the U.S. government to mint silver.
  • They were both authored by Senator John Sherman.
  • The Fifty-first Congress was also responsible for passing the Land Revision Act of 1891, which created the national forests.

• The Idea of Economic Citizenship

  • This attitude started to change during the depression of the 1890s when small business, farm, and labor movements began asking the government to intercede on their behalf.
  • Congress enacted a law regulating railroads in 1887 (the Interstate Commerce Act), and one preventing large firms from controlling a single industry in 1890 (the Sherman Antitrust Act).
  • Wilson helped end the long battles over the trusts with the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914.
  • They finally achieved that goal with the Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932.
  • The rapid growth of industry called for large numbers of new workers.

• Government Involvement

  • In the early years of American history, most political leaders were reluctant to involve the federal government too heavily in the private sector, except in the area of transportation.
  • By the turn of the century, a middle class had developed that was leery of both the business elite and the somewhat radical political movements of farmers and laborers in the Midwest and West.
  • Congress enacted a law regulating railroads in 1887 (the Interstate Commerce Act), and one preventing large firms from controlling a single industry in 1890 (the Sherman Antitrust Act).
  • New Deal leaders flirted with the idea of building closer ties between business and government, but some of these efforts did not survive past World War II.
  • The National Industrial Recovery Act, a short-lived New Deal program, sought to encourage business leaders and workers, with government supervision, to resolve conflicts and thereby increase productivity and efficiency.