"Cooperation" and the Anti-Trust Laws

• DOI: 10.1177/000271621606300106
• Date: 01 January 1916
• Author: Gilbert H. Montague
• Published date: 01 January 1916
• Subject Matter: Articles

69

"COÖPERATION"

AND

THE

ANTI-TRUST

LAWS

BY

GILBERT

H.

MONTAGUE,

Counsellor

at

Law,

New

York.

The

last

presidential

campaign,

among

its

other

blessings,

enriched

the

popular

vocabulary

of

economic

and

political

discus-

sion

with

the

word &dquo;cooperation.&dquo;

One

step

away

from

combina-

tion,

and

more

altruistic

in

sound

than

competition,

cooperation

served

well

as

a

political

rallying

cry

throughout

the

campaign,

and

has

since

done

yeoman’s

service

in

rallying

business

men

to

collective

action

regarding

prices,

territory

and

other

thorny

trade

conditions

unpleasantly

associated

with

the

Sherman

anti-trust law.

Around

cooperation

a

literature

has

developed,

upon

it

has

sprung

up

a

cult,

and

before

it,

in

the

hopes

of

its

devotees,

lies

a

future

of

usefulness,

in

which

cooperating

trade

associations

shall

walk

arm

and

arm

with

the

newly

established

Federal

Trade

Commission

and

find

lasting

peace

and

rest

from

the

Sherman

law.

&dquo;The

radical

change

that

is

taking

place

in

the

commercial

and

industrial

world-the

change

from

a

competitive

to

a

cooperative

basis,&dquo;

is

the

program

of

this

cooperative

movement.

&dquo;Cooperation

is

essentially

constructive;

competition

destructive,&dquo;

is

its

creed.

Hostility

to

the

Sherman

law

is

its

controlling

habit:

&dquo;The

very

theory

of

our

anti-trust

laws,&dquo;

asserts

the

cooperationist,

with

a

wealth

of

italics,

is

that

they

suppress

cooperation,

and,

by

encouraging

competition,

promote

the

widest

fluctuations

in

prices.....

The

Sherman

law

is

destructive

in

pur-

pose

and

application.

State

anti-trust

acts

are

framed

to

tear

down

and

destroy.

....

The

much

vaunted

Sherman

law

will

pass

into

economic

history,

along

with

such

English

laws

as

those

against

&dquo;regrating,&dquo;

&dquo;forestalling,&dquo;

and

&dquo;engrossing,&dquo;

and

laws

against

labor

unions-as

one

of

man’s

futile

attempts

to

check

evolution.....

The

country

has

reached

the

parting

of

the

ways.

It

must

make

its

choice

and

make

it

intelligently-either

the

competitive

or

the

cooperative

basis.l

1

These

and

other

quotations

and

references

to

"cooperation"

that

follow

are

from

Arthur

J.

Eddy:

The

New

Competition,

A.

C.

McClurg

&

Co.,

Chicago,

1915.

"Coöperation,"

in

the

sense

intended

by

Mr.

Eddy

and

others

of

his

school,

is

the "coöperation"

with

which

this

article

deals.