CHAPTER II
Monopolies
In respect to these, the Act again uses the word "every." "Every person who shall monopolize or attempt to monopolize, and it is not all, but "any part of the trade, etc.
What is it that the Act again denounces "every person" for either doing or attempting? What does "monopoly" really mean? What evil did it inflict? Why was it prohibited?
Mr. Justice Jackson says in In re Greene:[1] "A monopoly, in the prohibitive sense, involves the "element of an exclusive privilege or grant which restrained others from the exercise of a right or liberty which they had before the monopoly was "secured," and gives many other meanings.
It is manifest, however, that Congress in these United States, and in the year 1890, was not legislating against the monopolies that bad been destroyed by the statute of James in 1623!
There is no doubt that, since the statute of James, to unlawfully exclude one from competing with you in trade is to monopolize; but it seems impossible that the word was not also used in the Act of Congress, in its primary, natural and simplest meaning. The real evil is aptly described by the exact meaning of the word monopoly, that is, "to sell alone." That power gave a right of taxing and oppressing the whole nation, only limited
- ↑ 52 F. 116 (1892).
