Plaintiff: Standard Oil of New Jersey
Defendant: United States
Plaintiff's Claim: That Standard Oil was not in violation of the Sherman Anti-trust Act by conspiring to restrain trade.
Chief Lawyer for Plaintiff: John G. Milburn
Chief Lawyer for Defendant: Frank B. Kellogg
Justices for the Court: Rufus R. Day, John Marshall Harlan I, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles E. Hughes, Joseph R. Lamar, Horace H. Lurton, Joseph McKenna, Willis Van Devanter, Chief Justice Edward D. White
Justices Dissenting: None
Date of Decision: May 15, 1911
Decision: Ruled in favor of the United States by affirming a lower court order that Standard Oil be broken apart.
Progressives and the Era of Trust-Busting
Oil Corps and Banking Corps too -- they desperately need to be busted up before they destroy the planet all together.
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6 comments:
The 1911 Supreme Court wasn't exactly a band of flaming liberals. A number of them voted in the Plessy v. Ferguson majority and the Chief had articulated a legal philosophy that limited government standing to break up monopolies. And yet it broke up Standard Oil. This just shows how far to the right and how dogmatic the debate has become.
I enjoyed the paper. The worst thing that ever happened to Microsoft was not being broken up. It's become an unwieldy behemoth that has so far lost out on music, search engines, publishing, and phones. Apple has surpassed it in value. Windows and Office are still cash cows, but a company can only milk a cash cow for so long before it gives out. A break up would have create smaller, more nimble entities that would have had a much better chance of responding to the internet world.
I know. Oliver Wendell Holmes, fer pete's sake.
I remember in my h.s. history texts, and maybe in some other books of political cartoons, maybe?, those depictions from the era of Standard Oil as this oily octopus strangling the United States, and heroic Teddy (who highjacked Cuba's War of Independence and put in place U.S. hegemony, let us not forget) slicing off one tentacle after another.
Where is this will today?
Love, C.
Click here and scroll down for the cartoon you remember!
This is the one I was remembering, actually:
http://www.miningswindles.com/assets/images/lawson_cartoon03.png
Not to mention this one, which I also remember:
http://www.onepennysheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Standard_oil_600.jpg
The second one is amazing! Where can I get the t-shirt?
You'll have to make it, I guess!
Love, C.
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