"The General Assembly shall have no power to authorize any corporation to make any contract or agreement whatever with any (other) corporation, which may have the effect, or be intended to have the effect to defeat or lessen competition in their respective business, or to encourage monopoly; and all such contracts or agreements shall be illegal or void."
No specific anti-trust laws were enacted until 1889. At that time laws were placed upon the statute books of the states of Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. The new states of Montana, North Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming introduced similar provisions into their constitutions. In 1890 anti-trust laws were passed by Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Dakota, and by the territory of Oklahoma. Kentucky and Missouri introduced similar clauses into their constitutions in 1891. In the latter year anti-trust laws were passed by the states of Alabama, Illinois, Minnesota, and the territory of New Mexico; and amendments to the former laws were passed by Missouri and Tennessee. In 1892 a short anti-combination clause was inserted in a general law concerning corporations passed by New York; and an amendment to the former law was passed by Louisiana. Amendments were passed in 1893 by Illinois, Minnesota, and South Dakota; and the same year California prohibited monopolies in livestock, and Nebraska in coal and lumber. North Dakota passed a law in 1895, to take effect January i, 1896, prohibiting combinations in grain and live stock, but having some general anti-trust features; and Missouri passed another amendment to the law of that state.[1]
The United States law was approved by the President, July 2, 1890; and the Tariff Law of 1894 contains a section bearing upon the same subject, but having special reference to importations.
The most complete definition of a trust is given in the Illinois amendment of 1893, though the Texas law of 1889 covers nearly the same ground. The Illinois definition is as follows:
- ↑ Von Halle, Trusts, pp. 17, 18, states that Wisconsin passed an anti-trust law in 1892. The Secretary of State writes that Wisconsin has no such law. I am unable to reconcile the two statements. Von Halle also omits Mississippi and Oklahoma from his list, and has several minor divergencies from the statement above given.
