22h 7min, dec 31, 1907 y - Trust Busting/Sherman Antitrust

Description:

Pursued by Teddy Roosevelt as a way of making businesses more fair and competitive to the advantage of consumers, Roosevelt tried to regulate large corporations to behave responsible, and he filed lawsuits against corporations with trusts and monopolies.
After the Republican victory in the 1908 presidential election, Roosevelt was succeeded by his protege and chosen successor, William Howard Taft. Roosevelt, a Progressive reformer, earned a reputation as a "trust buster" through his regulatory reforms and anti-trust prosecutions.
He believed wall street financiers and powerful trust titans to be acting foolishly. While they were eating off fancy china on mahogany tables in marble dining rooms, the masses were roughing it. There seemed to be no limit to greed. If docking wages would increase profits, it was done. If higher railroad rates put more gold in their coffers, it was done. How much was enough, Roosevelt wondered?
Although he himself was a man of means, he criticized the wealthy class of Americans on two counts. First, continued exploitation of the public could result in a violent uprising that could destroy the whole system. Second, the captains of industry were arrogant enough to believe themselves superior to the elected government. Now that he was President, Roosevelt went on the attack.
The President's weapon was the Sherman antitrust act , passed by Congress in 1890. This law declared illegal all combinations "in restraint of trade." For the first twelve years of its existence, the Sherman Act was a paper tiger. United States courts routinely sided with business when any enforcement of the Act was attempted.

Added to timeline:

Date:

Images: