The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-21

A dispatch from Jackson, Miss, says the
attorney general has dismissed the anti
trust proceedings against outside insur-
ance companies operating in that State.
thus ending all efforts to enforce the anti
trust law. Efforts to enforce similar laws
in some States have been ATTENDED with
little. if any. better success, the diff
fculty generally being that the laws are
unconstitutional. The result shows the
folly of passing antitrust laws that can
not be enforced. To frame a law that will
reach the trust evil without violating con-
stitutional provisions or personal rights re-
quires much more wisdom than it does to
denounce them in political platforms or
on the stump. Men who undertake to
l~egislate against trusts should know a good
deal about constitutional rights, economic
principles and the possible consequences
of striking blindly at capital. The Journal
knows of a member of the last Legislature
who recently wrote that he is a candi
date for reelection and that Il no of no
opsician TO me-" No doubt he is a violent
enemy of combined capital in all its forms
and would cheerfully vote for the most
drastic antitrust law that could be draft
ed. The Mississippi law was passed about
two years ago. 1t provided that any cor
poration might be proceeded against as
constituting a trust which attempted to
restrain the freedom of trade or to engross
the management of any kind of business.
a corporation which constituted a trust
as thus defined or which was concerned in
a trust should. if a domestic corporation,
forfeit it's charter and franchise, and If a
foreign corporation, should forfeit its right
to do business in the State. The promoters,
managers and agents of any such corpora
ton were subject to fine and imprison-
ment. and any person directly or indi-
rectly injured by a trust or combination
might recover the amount of his damages
and $500 besides. There is not much manu-
featuring capital i'm Mississippi. but as
soon as the law was passed the attorney
general instituted proceedings against
nearly all the foreign insurance compa-
MES doing business i'm the State. thirty
one in number. All these companies have
since withdrawn from the State, leaving
the people practically without insurance.
Much the same result happened in Arkan-
sas. where the attempted enforcement of an
antitrust law drove sixty-three foreign
ire insurance companies out of the State
and left only two mutual companies hold
ing state charters doing business there.
Reasonable persons would hardly regard
this as a desirable condition. The Arkansas
law has since been held unconstitutional.
Ii is a curious fact that the same Missis-
sippi Legislature which passed the anti
trust law passed an act to encourage the
establishment OF manufactures in Missis-
sippi. providing for their exemption from
any kind of taxation for a term of years
and assuring them of protection and en-
enlargement. Since the passage of these
two laws a large amount of capital has
left the State. and probably little or none
has entered il. The lesson of the Mis-
sissippi case is that unwise antitrust Iegis.
lation is worse than none at all.