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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
Fascism And Monopoly, Daniel A. Crane
Fascism And Monopoly, Daniel A. Crane
Michigan Law Review
The recent revival of political interest in antitrust has resurfaced a longstanding debate about the role of industrial concentration and monopoly in enabling Hitler’s rise to power and the Third Reich’s wars of aggression. Proponents of stronger antitrust enforcement argue that monopolies and cartels brought the Nazis to power and warn that rising concentration in the American economy could similarly threaten democracy. Skeptics demur, observing that German big business largely opposed Hitler during the crucial years of his ascent. Drawing on business histories and archival material from the U.S. Office of Military Government’s Decartelization Branch, this Article assesses the historical …
Were Standard Oil's Railroad Rebates And Drawbacks Cost Justified?, Daniel A. Crane
Were Standard Oil's Railroad Rebates And Drawbacks Cost Justified?, Daniel A. Crane
Articles
In this essay, written for a symposium on the centennial anniversary of the Supreme Court's Standard Oil decision, I reexamine the costjustification question. In the first part, I explain why the cost-justification question is central to the entire case and its acquired and evolving historical meaning. In the second part, I review the evidence of claimed efficiencies passed on to the railroads. I conclude that there is evidence that Standard Oil passed along significant cost savings to the railroads and that these savings could have justified a portion of the rebates and drawbacks. However, I conclude that there is little …
The Evolution And Devolution Of Public Utility Law, Edwin C. Goddard
The Evolution And Devolution Of Public Utility Law, Edwin C. Goddard
Michigan Law Review
As long ago as 1873, and very likely even earlier, courts were speaking of the public utility in the sense of the public convenience or advantage, a New Jersey court saying, "these prerogatives (of railway corporations) are grants from the government, and public utility is the consideration for them." This has been often quoted by other courts, notably by your Judge Atherton in the famous case of Scofield v. Railway in 1885. But the term "public utility'' as applied to plants or corporations rendering a public service is very new. It is not to be found in the 1904 edition …
Case Of The Monopolies Some Of Its Results And Suggestions, Sydney T. Miller
Case Of The Monopolies Some Of Its Results And Suggestions, Sydney T. Miller
Michigan Law Review
Apparently the monopolistic idea is as old as the history of man. That great and good man, Job, may be counted as the earliest recorded "trust-buster," if we read between the lines of his story, and Solomon said, "He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him; but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it." Doubtless, by exhaustive search, we could find some record of attempts to monopolize during each century from Biblical days to the time of printing, and as surely there must have been a countermovement. But not until the last five hundred years …