r competition. "Any merchant,
manufacturer ... who shall sell any ... goods ... for less than actual
cost for the purpose of breaking down competitors shall be guilty of
a misdemeanor." Tennessee the same year (Tennessee, 1899, 250) in its
elaborate statute, which is a fairly good definition of the law, also
denounces throwing goods on the market for the purpose of creating
an undue depression, whatever that may mean. In the next year, 1890,
there were many more State statutes, but we should first notice a
simple law of New York forbidding any stock corporation from combining
with any other corporation for the prevention of competition (N.Y.,
1890, 564, 7). The usual statute in other States of that year is
addressed against combinations to regulate or fix prices or limit
the output, but Texas (4847a, 1) and Mississippi (1890, 36, 1) have
elaborate laws, which, however, add hardly any new principles to the
common law. They define a trust to be a combination of capital, skill,
or acts, by two or more persons or corporations, (1) to create or
carry out restrictions in trade; (2) to limit or reduce the output, or
increase or reduce the price; (3) to prevent competition; (4) to fix
at any standard or figure whereby its price to the public shall be in
any manner controlled, any article intended for sale, etc.; (5) to
make or carry out any contract or agreement by which they are bound
not to sell or trade, etc., below a common standard figure, or to
keep the price at a fixed or graduated figure, or to preclude free or
unrestricted competition among themselves or others, or to pool or
unite any interest. To much the same effect is the statute of South
Dakota (1890, 154, 1), but it also denounces any combination which
tends to advance the price to the consumer of any article beyond the
reasonable cost of production or manufacture. The Louisiana (1890, 36)
and New Mexico laws (1891, 10) are aimed particularly at attempts
to monopolize, while the Oklahoma statute (6620) was aimed only at
corporations, and the broad wording of the Federal act passed this
year should be noted: "Every contract, combination, in the form of
trust or otherwise, or conspiracy in restraint of trade or commerce
among the several States or with foreign nations, is hereby declared
to be illegal" (U.S., 1890, 647, 1); and in the second section: "Every
person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or
conspire with any other person or persons