Sherman AntiTrust Act

 Kendall Krasinski 

For the last EOTO I researched the Sherman Antitrust Act. This act was created due to the people in charge of these big corporations would be making a lot of money and making it impossible for other businesses to compete. As a result of this the smaller companies would either have to shut down or be bought out by their competitors. This became a serious problem due to the monopolies having so much power they were able to do as they pleased with their companies. Such as under paying employees and creating high prices that they knew people would pay since they were desperate. These companies knew that if they were the only ones selling a certain product that they could price it as high as they wished because people wouldn’t be able to get it from elsewhere. Their economic power was only hurting society. 

Finally in 1890 the Sherman Antitrust act was passed. This law prohibited companies from merging into monopolies with the hopes of promoting fair competitions among businesses. It was passed in the 1980’s by congress to reduce the concerns of economic fairness and the transportation of goods across states borders. The Sherman Antitrust Act wasn’t very specific which made it confusing for those to understand what the law truly meant. Although The Sherman Act failed it did have positives while it was still a law. For example with this law in place congress was able to regulate trade and end the monopolistic practices. This helped smaller business grow and we’re given the opportunity to have fair competition with other companies. 

In 1914 the Sherman Antitrust Act was replaced by the Clayton Antitrust Act. The Clayton Act used the same ideas as the Sherman Act but just specified what the law truly meant and what was suppose to be upheld. In the article I had read it stated “The Sherman Act only declared monopolies illegal while the Clayton act prohibits anticompetitive mergers, predatory and discriminatory pricing, and other forms of unethical corporate behavior” (Investopida). What I found is that the main reason for these acts in the first place was to make sure businesses were acting correctly and being fair to their employees and their competitors. The Clayton Antitrust Act is still in place today and does a great deal for our society.

I enjoyed researching the Sherman Antitrust Act because it is something I have heard about but never truly know what it meant and entailed. It was so interesting to research and hear that some companies today have lawsuits against them due to this law. I believe this law is useful and helpful for the economy and society.