The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-31


for indecent fabrications in public than
in private life.
Difficulty OF Antitrust Legislation.
The decision of federal court which
holds unconstitutional the antitrust
law Of Illinois brings to the front once
more the fundamental difficulty in COW
ering this subject by legislation. That
difficulty 1t should be remembered care
fully, arises wholly from the apparent
impossibility of framing a statute that
will apply to improper combinations
and not work hardship at the same time
to those whose effect Is beneficial to the
parties forming them and to the public
at large. The care of legislatures ard
the burden Of the courts lie not in being
tender to the trusts, but in attempting
to exempt from stringent prohibitions
the interests of the farmer and the
workingman.
Thus it will be seen that the decision
Of Judge Kohlsaat in the case in ques-
ton Is based upon the fact that the law
brought before him is class legislation.
This no free country can tolerate. Cen
eral laws must apply equally to ALL II
1t Is ever permitted to legsate for or
against particular class OF people in
the community, then liberty is lost and
oppression begins. For it would rest
with the people possessed of influence
and wealth ard political power to pro-
cure control of majority of legisla-
ture or of congress- and then they could
reward or punish by law any individuals
or classes of individuals that they might
select. Glass legislation is the worst
form of tyranny known. Therefore it
must be guarded against 1T any COST
Antitrust legislation rests generally
upon an attempt to prohibit industrial
combinations. Between combinations
whose effect is to bring about econo-
mics In production and those that aim
to become monopolies the law is not
able as yet to discriminate. 1t is the
principle of combination to control or
affect the market that must be attacked.
But that principle Is acted upon every
where. Farmers may combine to hold
their grain or their live stock until the
market improves. Single mills COM
bine to secure living profit and fair
wages. Every labor union is combi-
nation to maintain wages and advance
the interests of it's members. Nobody
would contend for one moment that
these latter should be placed under the
ban of the law.
Here is where the hands Of legislative
bodies are tied. To prohibit trade unions
and live stock associations and fruit
growers associations IL not to be
thought Of Therefore the Illinois law
excepted from its provisions agrlcul-
tural products or live stock in the hands
OF the producer or raiser. The purpose
was laudable. The principle Is repus-
nant to equity and impossible Of recog-
milton by the courts. The worst hater
of trusts will under stand this II he is
asked how he would feel were such a
law to be passed prohibiting combina-
ton In the marketing of products 'ex-
cept petroleum in the hands of the own
ers of oil wells" That would be mon
strous. But IL the one exception is per-
Missile under the law so is the other.
Establish the right OF legislative favor
itism, no matter how excellent the mo-
tive, and the recipient of the favor will
DEFEND entirely upon the disposition OF
a majority OF the legislative body
This Is the rock on which every anti
trust law thus far has split except the
Sherman law. That is said to be 30