2023 - M/J - 9489/13 | Q1

Read the sources and then answer both parts of the question.

Source A

Source B

Trusts are a necessary and inevitable step in industrial development. They are an alliance of work, brains and money with labour, intelligence and capital. They have nothing in common with monopoly. I have always been against such consolidations if there is no advantage of importance to be secured to the public. The trusts I have personally organised in rubber and starch demonstrate this. We are better businesses and offer a better service to the people. We have not worked with dishonest bankers who have sold shares knowing they were unsound. We have not misled the public, which would lead to speculation and bad investment.

From a book by C R Flint, known as the ‘Father of Trusts’, published in 1902.

Source C

Within the last few days it has been announced that both the cracker [biscuit] trust and the barbed wire trust have perfected their plans for cheating the public. The manufacturers of crackers have long been trying to compete with each other, as have the barbed wire makers. They have now ended all their differences. They have come up with the usual plan of ‘the big fish eat up all the little ones’. As a result, the people are called upon to pay up to the worst pair of commercial vampires that this state has ever seen. It will be interesting to see how this new law deals with these concerns. The law is much needed and seems broad enough to reach these offenders. We note with pleasure that the administration of President Harrison is inclined to make it as difficult as possible for the trusts, given that the common people have some rights which these organised monopolies must respect. We shall see what we shall see in the cases against these dreadful monopolies. The law appears very clear in its intention of making any attempt to restrain interstate trade illegal. We fear that much will depend on the Federal Government’s determination to enforce it.

From an American newspaper commenting on the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 3 August 1891.

Source D

The issue of trusts had dominated politics for decades. They had powerful supporters and bitter critics. Producers argued their merits, stressing their efficiencies and productivity. Consumers complained about the soaring prices which monopolies could impose and their destruction of fair competition. A law was very necessary to resolve the issue. The way in which the Sherman Anti-Trust Act was drafted was designed to end the worst excesses of the monopolists and, above all, to prevent any restraint on interstate trade. However, the law looked backwards and not forwards. Much depended on the willingness of the Harrison administration to enforce it, and there was real reluctance there. The law did not define a trust carefully. The monopolistic corporations had already created a new type of company, the holding company, which could avoid any of the possible restraints which the law was designed to impose.

From a book titled ‘The Anti-Trust Act and the Supreme Court’, by former President Taft, 1914.

Answer both parts of the question with reference to the sources.