Talk:Does Price Fixing Destroy Liberty?

Holmes review
"Those on the Lever Act, as amended, led me to read an excellent, if somewhat verbose, discussion by George H. Earle, Jr. that was distributed by Hughes in connection with his attack..."—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. on reading Does Price Fixing Destroy Liberty?

Versions
There are apparently two versions of this essay. From the two that are documented below, all front matter (with the exception of differences in the table of contents), and text up to the end of Chapter 8 are identical. Both Introductions are dated October 1, 1920. However, the longer version appearing here on Wikisource contains two extra chapters making up an addendum ("The Aftermath" and "Final Summary"). The shorter version that I have recently viewed was presented to "Richard T. Ely Esq. With the regards of George H. Earle, Jr." (signature not dated) Londonjackbooks (talk) 16:55, 27 May 2011 (UTC)

More discussion on this topic here.

Shorter version

 * 162 pp.; without chapters 9 & 10 which appear in appended version. Back matter is different between versions as a result of the added chapters in the appended version.  Table of Contents for this version (see images below) states Bibliography appears on p. 163, but that is a typo (also see images below); it actually appears on p. 162.

Appended version
See page scans.

View a pdf version at archive.org.
 * "Does Price Fixing Destroy Liberty?...Philadelphia, 1920. 183 p. 26cm. Bibliography: p. 183. © Dec. 15, 1920; 2c. and aff. Jan. 7, 1921; A 605311; G. H. Earle, jr., Philadelphia. (21-1069)"

Inscriptions

 * "Richard T. Ely Esq. with the regards of George H. Earle Jr." (shorter version, held at Louisiana State University)
 * "Laurence D. Beggs. Presented to him by the author. Geo. H. Earle Jr. March 3d 1920." (appended version, held at the Free Library of Philadelphia; handwriting is Beggs'—not Earle's; compared signature with Beggs' WWII draft reg. card)
 * Beggs was GHE's son-in-law, who was married to Earle's daughter Frances. Frances died in October of 1918—succumbing to the flu epidemic during that time.  Her sister Edith also died of the flu less than a week prior.  Frances had come to Edith's home to tend to her sister. Londonjackbooks (talk) 00:54, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

Timeline of events
1917
 * Aug 10—Act of August 10th, 1917, Chapter 53, Public No. 41, Volume 40 United States statutes at large page 276.

1919
 * Oct 22—Act of October 22nd, 1919, Chapter 80, Public No. 63, Volume 41 United States statutes at large page 297.

1920
 * Oct 24—Justice Holmes writes to Felix Frankfurter about having read Does Price Fixing Destroy Liberty? It is not yet clear whether he read the shorter version or the appended version.

The Lever Act, as amended
From the Earle text (Chapter 2, first footnote):

The Lever Act (Act of Congress approved August 10, 1917, Section 4, as amended by Section 2 of the Act approved October 22, 1919), reads thus amended as follows: "That it is hereby made unlawful for any person wilfully to destroy any necessaries for the purpose of enhancing the price or restricting the supply thereof; knowingly to commit waste or wilfully to permit preventable deterioration of any necessaries in or in connection with their production, manufacture, or distribution; to hoard, as defined in Section 6 of this Act, any necessaries; to monopolize or attempt to monopolize, either locally or generally, any necessaries; to engage in any discriminatory and unfair, or any deceptive or wasteful practice or device, or to make any unjust or unreasonable rate or charge in handling or dealing in or with any necessaries; to conspire, combine, agree, or arrange with any other person, (a) to limit the facilities for transporting, producing, harvesting, manufacturing, supplying, storing, or dealing in necessaries; (b) to restrict the supply of necessaries; (c) to restrict distribution of any necessaries; (d) to prevent, limit, or lessen the manufacture or production of necessaries in order to enhance the price thereof; or (e) to exact excessive prices for any necessaries, or to aid or abet the doing of any act made unlawful by this section. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section upon conviction thereof shall be fined not exceeding $5,000 or be imprisoned for not more than two years, or both; Provided, That this section shall not apply to any farmer, gardener, horticulturist, vineyardist, planter, ranchman, dairyman, stockman, or other agriculturist, with respect to the farm products produced or raised upon land owned, leased, or cultivated by him: Provided further, That nothing in this Act shall be construed to forbid or make unlawful collective bargaining by any co-operative association or other association of farmers, dairyman, gardeners, or other producers of farm products with respect to the farm products produced or raised by its members upon land owned, leased, or cultivated by them."

Repeal of the Lever Act
(from Wikipedia) "The work of the Fuel Administration ended in May 1919. The activities of the Food Administration declined quickly after the armistice and all but disappeared by July 1920.

The Act of August 10, 1917, as amended, was repealed along with a number of other authorized-for-wartime measures in a joint resolution of Congress on March 3, 1921 by effectively declaring the wartime emergency still in effect at the time as formally over.

Court cases brought under the so called Lever Act, both before and after the repeal, continued to work their way through the courts.

Glossary
See the Glossary of Wikilinks for this text.

Latin translation
"Impius et crudelis judicandus est, qui libertati non favet. Angliae jura in omni casu libertati dant favorem." (from Chapter 1)
 * Translation: "He should be adjudged impious and cruel who does not favor liberty. The laws of England are favorable in every case to liberty."

"in pari materia" (from Chapter 2)
 * Translation (from Wikipedia): "Upon the same matter or subject." When a statute is ambiguous, its meaning may be determined in light of other statutes on the same subject matter.

"secundum forman chartae" (from Chapter 3)
 * Translation: According to the form of the charter (or deed).

"Lex non cogit ad impossibilia." (from Chapter 4)
 * Translation: The law does not compel the impossible.

"obsta principiis" (from Chapter 6)
 * Translation: Resist the beginnings; nip it in the bud.

"jura naturae sunt immobilia, [and] leges legum." (from Chapter 9)
 * Translation: The laws of nature are immovable [and are] the laws of law.

"Id certum est quad certum reddi potest." (from Chapter 9)
 * Translation: That is certain that can be made certain.