vanter, now of the Supreme Court, participating as a Circuit Court Judge. In this case, Whitwell vs. Tobacco Co.,[1] the fundamental principle is thus, again, announced: "The right of each competitor to fix the prices of the commodities which he offers for sale * * * is indispensable to the very existence of competition. Strike down or stipulate away that right, and competition is not only restricted, but destroyed. * * * Contracts of competitors in the production or sale of merchantable commodities to deprive each competitor of the right to fix the prices of his own goods, the terms of the sale, or the customers to whom he shall dispose of them, and either to fix these prices, terms, and customers by the agreement of the competitors, or to intrust the power to dictate them, * * * necessarily have the effect either to stifle competition entirely, or to directly and substantially restrict it, because such contracts deprive the rivals in trade of their best means of instituting and maintaining competition between themselves. * * * Each had the right to fix the prices at which it would dispose of them, and the terms upon which it would contract to sell. * * * There is nothing in the Act of July 2nd, 1890 (Sherman Anti-Trust Act), which deprived any of these competitors of these rights. If there had been, the law itself would have destroyed competition more effectually than any contracts or combinations of persons or corporations could possibly have stifled it. The exercise of these undoubted rights is essential to the very existence of free competition, and so long as their exercise by any person or corporation in no way deprives competitors of the same rights, or restricts
- ↑ Whitwell vs. Continental Tobacco Co., 125 Fed. Rep. 454 (at page 459). 1903.
