he
common law, to fix the price of an article--that is restraint of
trade--or to limit the output. Two grocers going to the city in the
morning train agree that they will charge seven dollars a barrel for
flour during the ensuing week; two icemen, to harvest only a thousand
tons of ice. The contract between them could not be enforced; it is
undoubtedly unlawful; but it would hardly be a criminal offence at the
common law. There is, at least at the common law, some middle ground
between those contracts which are merely unenforceable, and those
which subject the co-makers to a criminal liability; although under
the cast-iron wording of a statute it may be that no such distinction
can be made.

Independent of combination, there is probably no legal wrong in merely
wishing ill to a man, withdrawing one's custom from him, competing
with him, or even, possibly, in injuring his trade. There is an
ancient case where the captain of an English ship engaged in a certain
trade, to wit, the slave trade, arrived off a beach on the coast
of Africa and was collecting his living cargo, when a second ship,
arriving too late to get a load itself, fired a cannon over the heads
of the negroes, and they, with the chief who was selling them, fled
in terror to the forest. The captain of the first ship went back to
London and brought suit against the captain of the second ship for
injuring his trade and was allowed to recover damages; but it may
be doubted if that is good law; although in 1909 a Minnesota court
decided that a barber could sue an enemy if he maintained an
opposition barbershop solely for the purpose of injuring his business;
and a few years ago in Louisiana a street railway foreman was held
liable in damages for instructing his men not to frequent the
plaintiff's store.[1] I say to you: "Do not trade with Smith, he is
not a good person to deal with," or, "Do not take employment with
him, he will treat you cruelly"; and in either case, unless I can
be convicted of slander, he has no remedy against me if I am acting
alone.

[Footnote 1: Tarleton _v_. McGawley, Peak, N.P.C. 270; Tuttle _v_.
Buck, 110 N.W. 946; Graham _v_. St. Charles St. Ry. Co., 47 La. Ann.
214.]

Now, this great law of conspiracy applies equally and always to
combinations of capital or of employers, to trusts, contracts in
restraint of trade and blacklists, as well as to unlawful labor
combinations, unlawful union rules, and boycotts. The statutes
directed