FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION. This commission was created by the act of 26 Sept. 1914, in order to provide more expe ditious methods of compelling observance of the Anti-Trust laws of the United States. Suits in equity for decrees to dissolve unlawful combinations were long-drawn out and final orders enjoining restraints of trade could not be obtained, nor could the penalties provided by the Sherman act for violations be enforced until the cases had been successively reviewed by the Circuit Court of Appeals and the Su preme Court of the United States. Moreover, the Sherman act is a penal statute, and com mercial practices, not criminal in their nature nor in their intent, might nevertheless be de structive of competition and contrary to public policy. The act of 26 Sept. 1914 declared *un fair methods of competition in commerce* to be unlawful. The act was intended to be regu lative rather than punitive; accordingly the Federal Trade Commission was directed to prevent the use of such methods. Banks and common carriers, being under the supervision of the Federal Reserve and Interstate Com merce Commissions, were excepted from the provisions of the act. The Federal Trade Com mission proceeds on its own initiative and, whenever it shall have reason to believe that any person, partnership or corporation has been, or is, using unfair methods of competition, and it shall appear to the Commission that a pro ceeding by it in respect to the matter would be in the public interest, it shall issue and serve on the party complained of a statement of charges with a notice of hearing. The party complained of has the right to appear and show cause why an order should not be entered requiring him or them to desist from the viola tion of law as charged. Any other person, firm or company having an adverse or collateral interest in the decision may apply, and, in a ptoper case, will be permitted to intervene in and become a party to the proceeding. The
orders of the Commission are enforcible by the Circuit Court of the United States, which may affirm, modify or set them aside; but the find ings of fact of the Commission are conclusive. The Commission may, and, on application of the Attorney-General, it must, make an investiga tion to discover in what manner any decree entered in an anti-trust suit has been, or is being, carried out — and it shall make a report thereon with its findings and recommendations, which it may make public at its discretion. It may publish the results of any other investiga tion, excepting only information obtained with respect to trade secrets and the names of cus tomers. In like manner the Commission may investigate and make recommendations for readjustment of the business of any corporation alleged to be violating the Anti-Trust laws, in order that the corporation may thereafter main tain its organization or management and con duct of business in accordance with the law. In a word the function of the Commission is to tell the great trading and industrial cor porations what they may, and what they must not do if they would escape dissolution and the other penalties of the law. The term °unfair competition" is broad enough to cover every thing forbidden by the anti-trust laws, either expressly or by implication; and the activities of the Commission have almost completely superseded those of the Attorney-General in the suppression of combinations in restraint of trade, While the Commission has no direct control over prices, its powers were great enough to induce a material reduction in the of newsprint paper as well as a fair distribution of the available supply thereof. Regulation and °pitiless publicity° may prove beneficial substitutes for °trust busting."