Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/681

Rh

The Court of Appeals of New York say that they "do not think that competition is invariably a public benefaction, for it may be carried on to such a degree as to be an evil." And in the famous case against the Sugar Trust, Mr. Justice Barrett, of the Supreme Court of New York, who tried the case at Circuit, in rendering his opinion, upon deciding the case, impressively said:

That was a notable decision and this is notable language from a judge at Circuit, at a moment when the public temper was inflamed against combinations of capital, in a case involving vast interests, when "kill trusts" was in the air, when the case had been tried with consummate ability upon behalf of the People, and argued to the court with an ingenuity and eloquence not often heard in these degenerate days in courts of justice, when all the ancient learning had been massed, when the sentiments of the middle age upon the subject had been most persuasively urged upon the court in rounded periods and polished phrase, and when a trial court might well have been excused for indulging in a little rhetoric in the popular vein. His honor after all calmly said: "excessive competition may sometimes result in