Page:Earle, Liberty to Trade as Buttressed by National Law, 1909 50.jpg

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

there are exceptions. * * * It is sufficient justification, and indeed it is the only justification, if the restraint is reasonable—reasonable, that is, in reference to the interests of the parties concerned, and reasonable in reference to the interests of the public, so framed and so guarded as to afford adequate protection to the party in whose interest it is imposed, while at the same time it is in no way injurious to the public." That is the latest deliverance of one of the greatest of judges in one of the greatest two courts of the world!

A mere look at the statute books, at the decisions of the courts, at the public press, at political conventions, or any other declarations of public opinion in the last few years, must convince any one that this is not the time to relax the safeguards thrown around society by the presumption of illegality in the absence of adequate explanation, where power and interest so unite that the public may be made to contribute enormous sums to those accomplishing such union.

50