" From this opinion
several of the Court, including Mr. Justice Gray, dissented.
It has not been carried to its full extent since, and I think
will never be held to prohibit the lawful and harmless combinations
which have been permitted in this country and in England without
complaint, like contracts of partnership which are usually
considered harmless. We thought it was best to use this general
phrase which, as we thought, had an accepted and well-known
meaning in the English law, and then after it had been construed
by the Court, and a body of decisions had grown up under
the law, Congress would be able to make such further amendments
as might be found by experience necessary.
The statute has worked very well indeed, although the Court
by one majority and against the very earnest and emphatic
dissent of some of its greatest lawyers, declined to give
a technical meaning to the phrase, "in restraint of trade."
But the operation of the statute has been healthy. The Attorney-
General has recently given an account of suits in equity by
which he had destroyed a good many vast combinations, including
a combination of the six largest meat-packing concerns in
the country; a combination of railroads which had been restrained
from making any rebate or granting any preference whatever
to any shipper; and a pooling arrangement between the Southern
railroads which denied the right of the shippers interested
in the cotton product in the South to prescribe the route
over which their goods should pass.
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