Laws in the United States

The United States for a very long time has tried to instill in every American that this is

the land of the free, and this is not just limited to being free from England, religion and

persecution, but free from unfair and unjust business practices as well.  This is evident by the \

formation of the Bureau of Corporations in 1903 by Theodore Roosevelt in order to investigate

businesses engaged in interstate commerce.  The Bureau of Corporations was later changed to

what we know today as the FTC or the Federal Trades Commission by Woodrow Wilson when

he was president in 1914.  The purpose of the FTC was to prevent unfair methods of competition

in commerce as part of the battle to “bust the trusts.” (ftc.gov)  Still to this day, the Federal

Trades Commission exists and governs our countries businesses and makes sure that there are no

monopolies are bad business practices. 

Long before our time and before Roosevelt established the Bureau of Corporations there

was what were known as trusts.  A trust was an arrangement by which stockholders in several

companies transferred their shares to a single set of trustees. In exchange, the stockholders

received a certificate entitling them to a specified share of the consolidated earnings of the

jointly managed companies. The trusts came to dominate a number of major industries, and

were, in effect, monopolies. (linfo.org/sherman. html)  During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s

trust and monopolies corrupted our economy and stood against every thing that America stood

for.  During these times you would mainly see these type of practices in the oil, sugar, steel,

tobacco, railroads, and meatpacking industries.  The most infamous of the trusts was the

Standard Oil Trust, which was formed in January, 1882. At that time, Standard Oil and its

affiliates controlled more than 90 percent of the oil refining capacity and most of the oil

marketing facilities in...