The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-27
SHERMAN ACT HAS
 S|GNALLY FAILED
Judge Peter Grosscup Says
 Trust Law Is Dead Letter.
CORrORATIONSA NECESSITY
The Judge Argues That Trusts and Combinations Are Part of Mod ern Progress and Laws
 Cannot Stop Them.

Indianapolis, October 26.-Judge Peter s. Grosscup of the United States circuit court Chicago, tonight, in an address to the members of the Colum- bia club. republican organization, . maintained that if the enactment of the sherman antitrust law was in- tended to exterminate trusts or to affect wages or prices, the purpose of the act had failed He declared that In the present age, industrial combi- nations were an effective agency to wield the energies of mankind beyond any other form yet discovered
 Judge Grosscup said In part
 We are now well Into the eighteenth year since the passage of the sherman antitrust act and well Into the sew enth year since MT Roosevelts admin istration began actively to enforce 1t. Thus, so far as enactments make law, there has been a prohibitory law against the so-caled trusts or big cor porations for nearly five times the length of time 1t took to fight out the civil war; and so far as a sincere and vigorous purpose to enforce law re- Sulto IT. dctudi tHlOittlHtbif tHt Ddi~ tie line against the so-called trusts or big corporations has been in action for nearly twice as long as 1t took to fight out the civil war.
 Trusts Still Exist.
 Have the so-called trusts or big corporations been extermnated? Have they been even diminished? Has the Sherman act brought about any de- crease in the cost of living, or any increase in wages? Has any specific. practical purpose of the Sherman act not present In the law as 1t has ex- isted for centuries, been fulfilled? On the contrary, were l to call the roll of the so-called trusts or big corporations. organized since the sherman law went into effect. I would be naming the largest ones in America today; and if 1t be said that this Is because the Sherman act, until the past six years, was treated as dead statute I ask, how many of the so called trusts or big corporations have been exterminated, or even diminish ed--what increase has there been in wages or decrease in the cost of living-by what Is admitted on all hands to have been q sincere and vigorous attempt to enforce the law duffng the administration of President Roosevelt2
 "Injunctions have been issued against the several packing houses that make up the meat industry: and here in Ind jana against certain concerns in the drug business; and against certain other so-called trusts throughout the eountry but in no case have these so-called trusts or big corporations been extermi- mated; in no case have wages prices been affected: in no case. except in minor detail. has anything been done that could not have been done as effectually under the common law that was In existence before the Sherman act went into eff fect--that could not be done against in- dividuals as we'll as against corpora tlons; and though in this respect, per- haps, the case of the Northern Securities company is an exception, even in that case the several railroads that made up the securities company are managed now almost precisely as they were be- fore the order of dissolution was en- tered.
 Sherman Act Has Failed.
 "If then. the enactment Of the Sher- man antitrust act was intended to ex- terminate the so-called trusts or big corporations, or 10 affect wages ar prices. the Sherman act has failed. If the en- trance of Mir. Rooseyelts administra-