he South Carolina
law is held unconstitutional, and in 1906, that of Montana. In 1907,
however, under the Roosevelt administration, there was a decided
revival of interest, seventeen States adopting new statutes or
amendments, but still I can find no new principles. Kansas copies the
Massachusetts statute, and Massachusetts extends it to the sale
or lease of machinery or tools. Minnesota and North Carolina have
interesting statutes prohibiting discrimination between localities
in the sale of any commodity. Most of the States by this time have
statutes compelling persons to give testimony in litigation about
trusts and exempting them from prosecution therefor. North Dakota has
also a statute prohibiting unfair competition and discrimination as
against localities, while Tennessee makes it a misdemeanor to sell any
article below cost or to give it away for the purpose of destroying
competition. In 1908 Louisiana and Mississippi adopted the principle
forbidding discrimination against localities, and the new State of
Oklahoma comes into line with the usual drastic anti-trust statute,
and we may, perhaps, conclude this review of a somewhat unintelligent
legislative history by perhaps the most amusing example of all.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which had so far refrained from
unnecessary legislation on this great question, thought it necessary
to adopt a statute making void contracts to create monopolies in
restraint of trade, which well shows the necessity of a legislative
reference bureau or professional draftsman, as discussed in a later
chapter. That is to say, it says literally: "Every contract, etc.,
in violation of the common law ... is hereby declared to be against
public policy, illegal, and void." As the law of Massachusetts is the
common law, and always has been the common law, this amounts to saying
that a contract which has always been void in Massachusetts is now
declared to be void. But, moreover, on a familiar principle of
hermeneutics, it might be argued to repeal the whole _criminal_ common
law of restraint of trade--doubtless the last thing they intended to
do!

As this is a book upon actual legislation, it would be out of place
to attempt a serious discussion of the problem that lies before us.
Suffice it to say that there are three possible methods of approaching
the question, as it is complicated with the interstate commerce power
of the Federal government. That is to say, either to surrender this