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The recent additions to the federal legislation having to do with monopolies and trusts have followed upon three years of continued and vigorous discussion. In part, very likely, this general revival of interest in the control of the trusts was bound up with the growth of a general radical movement in politics, and more especially with the demand for a generally increased measure of government control of industry. But there is more than mere coincidence in the fact that this period of active public discussion followed immediately upon the decisions of the Supreme Court in the Standard Oil and American Tobacco cases. Before these decisions the Sherman act was a weapon which had never been fairly tested with respect to its efficacy for the purpose for which it was forged. But with its strength and its limitations at least partly uncovered, it became a fair target for criticism. Not only were the undertakings directly affected by these decisions of great magnitude and with far-reaching affiliations, but, what is more important, each was precisely the sort of undertaking against which the statute was primarily directed. Whether or not labor organizations, railroad combinations, and price agreements affecting a limited area were intended to be covered by the condemnation of the law might afford some ground for debate, 20I