Page:Earle, Does Price Fixing Destroy Liberty, 1920, 013.jpg



With the introduction understood somewhat as a syllabus of the many considerations involved, which cannot all be stated at once, a general knowledge of the scope of this inquiry is gained. Little difficulty or discussion would have resulted from the consideration of the Lever Act, had the constant admonitions of the Supreme Court been observed to the effect that whether in construing such Acts or the Constitution itself, there must always be considered both the Common Law and the conditions under which the Constitution was adopted, and Acts passed in pari materia. As Mr. says in the Knowlton case: "The then members of the Congress * * *  must have had a keen appreciation of the influences which had shaped the Constitution and the restrictions which it embodied, since all questions which related to the Constitution and its adoption must have been at that early date, vividly impressed on their minds.  * * *  The people were content to commit to their representatives the enactment of reasonable and wholesome laws, being satisfied with the protection afforded by a representative and free