July 2, 1890: The Sherman Antitrust Act

Senator John Sherman.

His brother William was the General who burned Atlanta,

but John looks scarier to me.

July 2, 1890: The Sherman Antitrust Act is signed into law by President Benjamin Harrison. It was one of the most significant pieces of legislation between the end of the American Civil War in 1865 and the start of the New Deal in 1933.

It was proposed by Senator John Sherman, Republican of Ohio, who had been Secretary of the Treasury under President Rutherford B. Hayes, and would later be Secretary of State under President William McKinley. He was also the author of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, signed by Harrison on the same day. That Act was supposed to help the U.S. economy grow, but backfired, leading to a recession in 1890 and, ultimately, a depression in 1893. 

For all that he did, successful and not, he was still only the 2nd-most consequential person in his family: His older brother was General William Tecumseh Sherman. The brothers were close, and William supported John's unsuccessful runs for President in 1880, 1884 and 1888. Their closeness may have been the reason Williams, when asked to run himself in 1884, said, "I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected."

Business monopolies had grown significantly after the Civil War, and what would now be called small businesses were being squeezed, or bought, out of existence. The Antitrust Act was designed to encourage business competition. As a Supreme Court ruling, Spectrum Sports, Inc. v. McQuillan, said in 1993:

The purpose of the Act is not to protect businesses from the working of the market; it is to protect the public from the failure of the market. The law directs itself not against conduct which is competitive, even severely so, but against conduct which unfairly tends to destroy competition itself.

The Sherman Act broadly prohibits anticompetitive agreements, and unilateral conduct that monopolizes or attempts to monopolize the relevant market. The Act authorizes the U.S. Department of Justice to bring lawsuits to enjoin, meaning to prohibit, conduct violating the Act, and additionally authorizes private parties injured by conduct violating the Act to bring suits for treble damages: Three times as much money in damages as the violation cost them.

Sherman's bill proved so popular that it passed the Senate on April 8, 1890, by a vote of 52 to 1; and the House on June 20, by a vote of 331-0. 

Over time, the federal courts have developed a body of law under the Sherman Act making certain types of anticompetitive conduct per se illegal, and subjecting other types of conduct to case-by-case analysis regarding whether the conduct unreasonably restrains trade.

Among the corporations sued under the Act, and how the Supreme Court decided:

* 1904, Northern Securities: The trust was dissolved.

* 1911, Standard Oil Company of New Jersey: Broke up the company based on geography.

* 1911, American Tobacco Company: Broke one company into four.

* 1922, baseball's National League: This one went the other way, as the Court ruled that baseball was not interstate commerce, and thus not subject to the law. This has become known as "baseball's special exemption."

* 1982, American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T): Settled before the Court could hear that case, and "The Bell System" was broken up into "Baby Bells." This was one of the few monopolies that the general public liked, although it's hard to imagine the modern mobile phone industry with AT&T running everything.

* 2001, Microsoft: Settled before it could get to the Court, with Microsoft making concessions sufficient for the government to decide to drop the case.

*

July 2, 1890 was a Wednesday. Baseball was the only professional sport in season at the time. But this was the year of the Players' League revolt, so there were 3 leagues playing at the time.

In the National League:

* The New York Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, 13-9 at Recreation Park in Pittsburgh. The next season, the Alleghenys became the Pittsburgh Pirates, after one of their actions as part of the settlement of the 3-league dispute was called "nothing but piratical."

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, 6-1 at League Park in Cincinnati. The Brooklyn team was called the Bridegrooms because several players had gotten married in the 1886-87 off-season. They became the Dodgers in 1911.

* The Boston Beaneaters swept a doubleheader from the Cleveland Spiders, winning each game by a 5-4 score, at National League Park in Cleveland. The Spiders folded after the 1899 season. The Beaneaters became the Braves in 1912.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Colts, 7-4 at West Side Park in Chicago. The Colts became the Cubs.

In the American Association:

* The Brooklyn Gladiators lost to the Louisville Colonels, 5-3 at Eclipse Park in Louisville, Kentucky. With the folding of the AA after the 1891 season, the Gladiators folded, and the Colonels joined the NL, but folded themselves after the 1899 season.

* The Syracuse Stars beat the Columbus Solons, 7-2 at Recreation Park in Columbus, Ohio. Both teams folded with the AA.

* The Philadelphia Athletics and the Toledo Maumees played to a 5-5 tie at Speranza Park in Toledo, Ohio. There is no notation on Baseball-Reference.com as to why this game did not find a winner. There is no mention of bad weather, or of extra innings, which would suggest being called due to darkness.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Rochester Broncos, 6-2 at an early version of Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. With the folding of the AA, the Broncos folded, and the Browns joined the NL, becoming the Cardinals in 1900.

And in the Players' League, which didn't care that it was using team names already used elsewhere, as they saw themselves as the "real" versions of those teams, as they had the "real" players:

* The New York Giants beat the Cleveland Infants, 7-6 at Brotherhood Park in Cleveland.

* The Brooklyn Ward's Wonders lost to the Buffalo Bisons, 17-11 at Olympic Park in Buffalo.

* The Boston Reds beat the Pittsburgh Burghers, 4-2 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. Exposition Park would later be adopted by the Pirates. It was also the site of the 1st professional football game, in 1892.

* And the Chicago White Stockings beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 10-3 at South Side Park in Chicago. Both names had been used by teams in previous leagues, including the team now known as the Cubs. And both names would be used by American League teams starting in 1901.