PROFITING BY EXPERIENCE

...Such acts as these are declared unreasonable, thereby giving certain effectiveness to the law...

...The President and Senator La Follette start with the same premises, namely, that the maintenance of competition is desirable and that the decisions of the supreme court in the Standard Oil and Tobacco cases are right...

...This provision is similar to the one introduced by the progressives in the interstate commerce commission's law under which the railroads, seeking an advance in rates, had the burden of proof to show that the proposed increase was not unreasonable...

...1. Even when enforced as in the Standard Oil and Tobacco cases, it at most prevents future violations of the law, but it leaves the violators in possession of the spoils illegally gained and leaves the victims, the crushed competitors and the public which has been subjected to extortionate demands, without a remedy for the wrongs it has suffered...

...Examples of such practices are that of refusing to supply a customer if he purchase also from the trusts' competitor, or cutting prices in a particular district to kill a competitor, as was so often practiced by the Standard Oil...

...Three Striking Defects THERE ARE three striking defects in the Sherman law...

...Utilizing the experience gained by years of an attempt to enforce the law, the La Follette bill provides that where the combination to restrain trade exists, the burden of the proof that it is reasonable shall rest upon those that assert the fact...

...The La Follette bill undertakes to remedy this grave defect by providing that when, in a proceeding by the government, a trust has been declared illegal, those who have suffered from its illegal acts may prove their damages as an incident of the same proceedings and without having to undertake litigating anew, as under the present law, the question of illegality...

...2. The Sherman law as interpreted by the supreme court, leaves in vast uncertainty the question as to what, in any case, will be deemed a reasonable restraint...

...But the President, ignoring twenty years' experience with the Sherman law, treats that act as final, while La Follette utilizes his experience to perfect the act...

...3. To secure compliance with the Sherman law involves now a heavy burden, because, even if it is proved that the defendants have combined to restrain trade, the government has the further obligation of proving that that restraint is unreasonable...

...Profiting by Experience FAR-FAMED LAWYER POINTS OUT DEFECTS IN THE ANTI-TRUST LAW THAT WILL BE REMEDIED BY THE LA FOLLETTE BILL By LOUIS D. BRANDEIS A COMPARISON of the President's speech on the antitrust law with the La Follette bill introduced August 19, 1911, places in striking contrast the mere lawyer with the constructive statesman...

...The La Follette bill utilizing the experience of twenty years specifies a series of acts which in practice have been proved to be unreasonable, as destroying competition...