Sherman+Antitrust+Act



__**Sherman Antitrust Act**__

The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed on July 2, 1890. It requires the United States' federal government to investigate trusts, companies, and organizations which are thought to be breaking the law. It was the first federal act which limited cartels and monopoliesand it forms part of the Antitrust litigation. Some politicians were not wanting to enforce the law until Theodore Roosevelt's presidency (1901-1909). The Sherman Antitrust Act was made by an Ohio republican, John Sherman, who was the chairman of The Senate Finance Commitee. Also, Sherman was one of John D. Rockefeller's friends. John D. Rockefeller had taken over the oil industry with his oil refinery in Ohio, which later became the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, later known as SOHIO. Rockefeller was a man who used shrewd business tactics to destroy competition and run them out of business. To ensure his hold over the oil industry, he invented the Standard Oil Trust in 1882, which was a board of directors in charge of all the oil companies. Also, he created a monopoly over the industry by buying all the businesses in the United States so all of their profits go to Rockefeller. By creating Trusts and Monopolies, other people did too which lead to the Sherman Antitrust Act. "To protect the consumers by preventing arrangements designed, or which tend, to advance the cost of the consumer"