LAD #27: Clayton Anti-Trust Act

          With the advent of big business in the late nineteenth century came big corruption. Throughout the end of the 1800s, the government's Laizzes Faire attitude towards business, and the weak leadership of the forgotten presidents led to widespread trusts and monopolies, controlling the markets and taking advantage of workers and consumers. In some cases it even seemed that the government was in favor of business rather than the workers. Although legislations such as the Sherman Anti-Trust act and the ICC were passed, they were not enforced, and were even sometimes used against the workers. It took the strong leadership of the Trust-busting "Teddy" Roosevelt to finally come down on big business and begin to regulate trusts and monopolies. A breakthrough came in 1914 with the passing of the Clayton Anti-Trust Act. The act, like Sherman's was meant to break up monopolies and trusts. The act stated that no corporation could own the stock of another, and fixing prices on goods and transportation was illegal. The key difference, however, between the Clayton and Sherman acts was that the Clayton Act could not be used against workers.