of which all our legislation has been passed during the last thirty years, and nullified the results of thirty years of intensive consideration by the Supreme Court of the United States.
And, what is more, all this has been accomplished by but three words[1] in a general statute. It is simply astonishing, therefore, that, up to this time, no adequate inquiry has been found upon this subject; and that its discussion has been solely by law taken for granted, instead of law declared through judicial processes; as this is not only an unsafe method; but, as was to be expected, has resulted in most serious confusion and harmful results, there seems to be propriety in further inquiry.
Upon the point of the real meaning of the Act the strangest enigma of the whole subject must not escape our consideration. Bearing in mind that throughout the whole history of the Common Law, it has been considered that it was part of the common liberty for men to buy and sell their property in a free market, always restrained, but only restrained by free competition. Remembering, consequently, that all interference with such trading, whether by guilds, combinations, or even Government, were held illegal as invasions of that Liberty that our Constitution was adopted to safeguard. And not forgetting that all experience has always shown that no other system has ever either continued, or failed to be injurious, and finally, that these fundamental truths have been so wrought into our jurisprudence that for generations it has been settled that where prices are thus fixed they are not only "just and reasonable prices," but their best and conclusive evidence; and that Judges have for an unmeasured time always so instructed juries. How can it be explained,
- ↑ That is—"unjust," "unreasonable" and "excessive."
