Possible Benefits of the Federal Trade Commission

• Author: Alexander W. Smith
• Published date: 01 January 1916
• Date: 01 January 1916
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271621606300107
• Subject Matter: Articles

84

POSSIBLE

BENEFITS

OF

THE

FEDERAL

TRADE

COMMISSION

BY

ALEXANDER

W.

SMITH,

Counsellor

at

Law,

Atlanta,

Ga.

The

obvious

cause

of

the

trust

problem

is

the

unlimited

power

to

create

corporations

now

lodged

in

the

several

states

with

no

adequate

power

vested

anywhere

to

control

them.

In

the

days

of

isolation,

trade

was

at

first

protected

from

restraint

and

commerce

from

monopoly,

by

prohibiting

the

primi-

tive

expedients

of

forestalling,

regrating

and

engrossing.

Experi-

ence

soon

demonstrated

that

such

prohibition

defeated

its

own

object,

and

the

old

English

acts

were

repealed

(221

U.

S.

55).

But

when

the

engrossing

of

&dquo;dead

victual&dquo;

grew

to

an

international

trust

and

combination,

the

ancient

and

discarded

prohibitory

measure

was

reenacted

and

crudely

enlarged,

in

the

form

of

the

Sherman

Anti-trust

Act

of

1890.

After

some

twenty-five

years

of

experimentation

under

it,

to

the

great

disturbance

of

business,

a

bill

of

particulars

to

the

general

inhibitions

of

the

Sherman

Act

was

supplied

under

the

title

of

the

Clayton

Act

of

October,

1914.

During

these

twenty-five

years

of

antagonism

and

estrangement

between

business

and

government,

the

means

of

intercommuni-

cation

were

augmented

by

the

telephone,

the

wireless

and

the

aeroplane,

so

that

earth

and

sea

and

air

are

now

joined

together.

Means

of

intercommunication

measure

the

limits

of

trade,

and

when

they

become

world-wide,

commerce

becomes

universal.

As

the

legislation

on

the

subject

embraced

in

the

anti-trust

acts

was

altogether

restrictive,

while

the

conditions

underlying

the

commerce

it

sought

to

restrict

were

altogether

expansive,

it

is

not

to

be

won-

dered

at

that

things

have

been &dquo;at

sixes

and

sevens&dquo;

and

the

bus-

iness

men

of

the

United

States

have

come

at

last

to

be

timid,

irritated,

anxious,

and

alarmed

by

reason

of

long

combat

with

the

deadliest

of

all

enemies

to

business- Uncertainty.

The

act

of

September,

1914,

creating

the

Federal

Trade

Com-

mission

was

and

is

doubtless

considered

solely

an

adjunct

to

the

anti-trust

acts.

But

it is

more

than

a

mere

adjunct

to

the

anti-