Sherman Antitrust Act Essay

Consumer’s satisfaction and quality of prices would have decreased if the Sherman Antitrust Act haven’t been created by the Congress in 1890. Since the 17th century monopolies have existed. The Sherman Antitrust Act created on the 17th century by Senator John Sherman, from Ohio was the beginning of a lasting fight against monopolies. The Sherman Antitrust Act had the objective of preventing anticompetitive monopolies, thus, protecting consumers. President Theodore Roosevelt was the first American president to use the principle of the Sherman Antitrust Act to work against monopolies that hurted the American economy. The old Sherman Antitrust Act would have its legacy still applied on nowadays economy. First of all, the concepts trust

However, the process of regulation of both monopolies and trusts regulation has not started on the 21th century. Regulations of monopolies have started at the end of the 17th century when Senator John Sherman from Ohio proposed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. This act was passed during the period known as “Gilded Age’’ in the American history. President Theodore Roosevelt of the United States used the principle of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to work against monopolies that were harmful to the American economy. However, Roosevelt considered some monopolies to be good and others bad, by considering its importance and value to American economy. Roosevelt considered the J. P Morgan’s U.S. Steel as a good monopoly as it supplied United States industry with a steady supply of steel at a greatly reduced cost. On the other hand, Roosevelt fought against more than 25 monopolies, which he considered bad to American economy. One example of a monopoly that Roosevelt fought against was the beef trust. He worked to build a bipartisan agreement, which consisted on working with both Democrats and his own Republican Party, old guard politicians and newly elected reformers to reform business. Finally, in 1906 he established the Pure Food and Drug Act, which basically gave the federal government greater regulatory power over food products in the