The Sherman Act 1890

Before 1890, a few companies completely dominated major industries. Stockholders’ trusts eliminated competition and created monopolies, which in turn hurt American consumers and the economy as a whole. However, this all changed in 1890 when Congress passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. It was the first regulation of American businesses, outlawing monopolies and trusts, which created a way for the government to control the economy. Congress should have passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act because it protects consumer rights, controls the economy, and eliminates monopolistic business practices.

The Morrill Act of 1862 and 1890 was the beginning of American Public Education. This trend was designed to provide equal opportunity to the different socioeconomic groups.

Throughout history European people have been conquering territories that were already inhabited. Canada was one of them and the people that were already living there are known as The First Nations Peoples. They are the peoples who used to be called Indians. They are divided into more than 600 diverse bands. All these tribes have different history, culture, and traditional cuisine. Something they share in common is that they were forced to assimilate to European Culture by the Indian Act. According to the website Indigenous Foundations the Indian Act was composed of two previous acts, which were the Gradual Civilization Act of 1857 and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869. The Indian Act was established in 1876. The website Indigenous Foundations explains the Indian Act and the following quote explains part of the Indian Act, "This authority has ranged from overarching political control, such as imposing governing structures on Aboriginal communities in the form of band councils, to control over the rights of Indians to practice their culture and traditions. The Indian Act has also enabled the government to determine the land base of these groups in the form of reserves, and even to define who qualifies as Indian in the form of Indian status". In other words the Indian Act was created so that Natives would lose their cultures and so that the government decided their lives for them. At the same time the Act protected them from tax exemptions in the reserves. The

Indigenous peoples of the United States have been persecuted against since the birth of the nation. As years progressed, the Indians were stripped of their identity and exposed to the realities of the American lifestyle—a lifestyle that failed to coincide with the traditions and culture they possessed years prior to the influx of Americans into western territory. As desire for this territory increased due to economic ventures, and the ultimate desire to expand due to Manifest Destiny, measures needed to be taken to ensure the land was to be in full possession of the government. Thus, the Dawes Act was enacted in 1887, which allotted new lands to Indians in exchange for American citizenship. While its promise could be construed as a generous gesture by the government, the act in reality was nothing but a gesture; it was a burden. Therefore, the Dawes Act of 1887, along with other attempts of Indian assimilation, threatened family ties and culture, stripped them of sacred lands, and proved that citizenship came with a fatal denunciation of their culture.

It required that all prices must be reasonable and just, rates must be publically posted, outlawed all secret rebates and deals, and price discrimination against smaller companies was now made illegal. While the act promised many changes to reduce the domination of the railroad monopolies, it was not enforced as pro-railroad commissioners were appointed by most of the later presidents. The next act passed by congress in 1890 called Sherman Antitrust Act. The objective of the act was to ban trusts and other contracts that restrained free trade. Much like the Interstate Commerce it was not enforced at all. In fact it was used to help the railroad monopolies even more by regulating labor unions. The very pro-business Supreme Court would rule that strikes violated the prohibition against “a conspiracy in restraint of trade.” In the act. This was the opposite intent of the act, and would not be properly enforced until the early

The Sherman Act was created in 1890 had two major provisions which was to prohibit conspiracies to restrain trade and also to outlaw monopolization. In 1914 the Clayton Act was passed to expand off of the Sherman Act. The Clayton

11. Significance of the Clayton Antitrust Act- The Clayton Act of 1914 reformed and emphasized certain concepts of the Sherman Act of 1890 that are still active today. These reforms were necessary in order to better the United States and move the country forward.

Despite its good intentions, the Act didn't hit all its targets. The Act emerged as a somewhat tenuous plan to break up the "big business" monopolies. The weaknesses of the Act are described by Chief Justice Stone: "The prohibitions of the Sherman Act were not stated in terms of precision or of crystal clarity and the Act itself does not define them. In consequence of the vagueness of its language, perhaps not uncalculated, the courts have been left to give content to the statute, and in the performance of that function it is inappropriate that courts should interpret its words in the light of its legislative history and of the particular evils at which the legislation was aimed." Ultimately, "there [was] no question that nearly everyone wanted to

The Sherman Antitrust Act was enacted on July 2nd, 1890 which prohibits activities that restrict interstate commerce and competition in the marketplace.

There has been much documentation on the plight of Native Americans throughout the beginnings of this nation. In spite of the attempts by the early government of the United States, the culture of many Native American tribes has survived and even flourished. The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 is just one of many examples of how our government attempted to wipe out Native American culture. This paper will discuss the Dawes Act, particularly the time leading up to the act, the act itself, and finally its failure. By understanding the past failures in the treatment of a particular race of people, the government can learn how to protect the rights of all people, especially in a day and age of cultural diversity.

The central focus for this lesson is to have student analyze an injury question, develop a hypothesis and revise that said hypothesis after several data sets to have a specific thesis statement that is specific to all events leading up to the inquiry question. The inquiry question the students are analyzing is; what are the major effects of the Indian Removal Act of 1830? The students will be given several data sets of events that occurred after the act was initiated and draw conclusions and revise their thesis statement as they go.

When Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated in 1913, he stated in his address that, “We shall deal with our economic system as it is and as it may be modified, not as it might be if we had a clean sheet of paper to write upon” (First Inaugural Address, online). He did just that when he passed the Clayton Antitrust Act in October 1914. The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed in 1890, but it was very vague in the way it described monopolies (Clayton Antitrust Act, online). Big business took advantage of the loopholes, which diminished competition (Clayton Antitrust Act, online). Although Roosevelt and Taft successfully busted about 150 trusts, big businesses continued to grow and our entire economic system remained in the hands of a few men (Taft Biography, online; T. Roosevelt – Section 8, online; Clayton Antitrust, online). Wilson requested Congress to modify the Sherman Antitrust Act, and the Clayton Antitrust Act was born (Clayton Antitrust, online). It is “An Act To supplement existing laws against unlawful restraints and monopolies, and for other purposes” (HR 15657, online). The Sherman Act simply declared monopolies illegal, while the Clayton Act declared activities linked with monopolies to be illegal (Clayton Antitrust Act, online). Such activities include mergers and acquisitions that are intended “substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly” (HR 15657, online). The Federal Trade Commission Act, passed about a month before the Clayton Act, banned

There were many significant events that happened in this chapter, but the “Taming” and movement of the Indians is what I found most significant, because there were many factors that killed off several Indians, there were many corrupt things that happened to the Indians, and also, The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. I believe this was the most significant thing that happened, because of all the things that happened to the Indians is the reason we have the west of our United States that we know today. There were several horrible things that happened to the Native Americans, from diseases to wars to them having to give up the land and religion they knew.

The American’s desire for expansion of their nation and economic growth has always been their main interest and goal. The Indian Removal in the 1830’s was a great example of America’s efforts to expand through North America and their motivation to economically improve through profitable opportunities. When comparing the Indian Removal and the events that followed the Treaty of Paris, a similarity in the expansion of America is discovered. Labor, politics, and economics of America during the two eras of Market Revolution and Jacksonian America were greatly impacted by Eli Whitney’s invention of the Cotton Gin and South Carolina’s use of nullification in politics.

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 was passed to prohibit trusts, this was the first law passed by U.S. Congress to enforce this. This act was named after Senator John Sherman. Before this act was put into place, many other states had enforced laws very similar to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. These laws were not perfect though, the large corporations had the majority of the economic power. Congress was not pleased with this, thus making the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. This act allowed Congress to regulate interstate commerce, outlawing monopolistic practices. If a person were to violate this act, he or she could be imprisoned for a year and fined five-thousand dollars. This law was successfully used to help Theodore Roosevelt during his campaign, “trust-busting”. Also, President Taft used the law to back himself up against the Standard Oil Trust and American Tobacco Company. The Standard Oil trust was when a board of nine trustees was set up to make all of the company decisions , allowing the company to run as a monopoly. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act allowed both presidents to dissolve the trusts that were creating problems. On the other hand, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act had many holes, it did not have exact wording, therefore allowing companies to still control the majority of the producing and still get away with it. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act had substantial success, but was put to rest and replaced with the Clayton Anti-Trust