rom the committee on finance, to present, in as
clear and logical a way as I can, the legal and practical questions
involved in the bill.

"The object of the bill, as shown by the title, is 'to declare
unlawful, trusts and combinations in restraint of trade and
production.' It declares that certain contracts are against public
policy, null and void. It does not announce a new principle of
law, but applies old and well-recognized principles of the common
law to the complicated jurisdiction of our state and federal
government. Similar contracts in any state in the Union are now,
by common or statute law, null and void. Each state can and does
prevent and control combinations within the limit of the state.
This we do not propose to interfere with. The power of the state
courts has been repeatedly exercised to set aside such combinations
as I shall hereafter show, but these courts are limited in their
jurisdiction to the state, and, in our complex system of government,
are admitted to be unable to deal with the great evil that now
threatens us.

"Unlawful combinations, unlawful at common law, now extend to all
the states and interfere with our foreign and domestic commerce
and with the importation and sale of goods subject to duty under
the laws of the United States, against which only the general
government can secure relief. They not only affect our commerce
with foreign nations, but trade and transportation among the several
states. The purpose of this bill is to enable the courts of the
United States to apply the same remedies against combinations which
injuriously affect the interests of the United States that have
been applied in the several states to protect local interests.

* * * * *

"This bill, as I would have it, has for its single object to invoke
the aid of the courts of the United States to deal with the
combinations described in the first section, when they affect
injuriously our foreign and interstate commerce and our revenue
laws, and in this way to supplement the enforcement of the established
rules of the common and statute law by the courts of the several
states in dealing with combinations that affect injuriously the
industrial liberty of the citizens of these states. It is to arm
the federal courts within the limits of their constitutional power,
that they may co-operate with the state courts in checking, curbing,
and controlling the most dangerous combinations that now threaten
the bus