OVER CARRIERS AND CORPORATIONS BY E. PARMALEE PRENTICE New Bork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. 1907 All rights reserved PREFACE THE present work deals, as its title indicates, with the nature and extent of powers belonging to the general government, not with Congressional legislation. One statute, however, the Act of July 2, 1890, popularly known as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, so closely concerns the principles of government that it has required a full consideration. It is common in discussing these questions largely to disregard the purposes which influenced the formation of our government and for a century directed its administration. Present questions, it is urged, are new, beyond the contemplation of the statesmen of a century ago, and new meanings must therefore be given to the Constitution. This is surely a most dangerous and mistaken notion. The nature of man and the principles of government are not changed. Personal liberty is as precious as of old, and its preservation is still of first importance. The influences which endanger free government, and, if unrestrained, lead to the license of the mob or to arbitrary rule, are present in our, as in all other peoples. That so many persons are |