The subject thus reopened, the Senate Committee on the
Judiciary went into the whole question of monopoly anew, and in 1909
Senator Nelson presented an exhaustive report against the proposed
relaxation. Thereupon the Senate indefinitely postponed further
consideration of the amendment. The chief reasons given by Senator
Nelson were summed up in a single sentence: "The defence of reasonable
restraint would be made in every case and there would be as many
different rules of reasonableness as cases, courts, and juries.... To
amend the anti-trust act, as suggested by this bill, would be to
entirely emasculate it, and for all practical purposes render it
nugatory as a remedial statute.... The act as it exists is clear,
comprehensive, certain and highly remedial. It practically covers the
field of federal jurisdiction, and is in every respect a model law. To
destroy or undermine it at the present juncture, ... would be a
calamity.
"In view of the foregoing, your committee recommend the indefinite
postponement of the bill."[35]
And so the Senate did indefinitely postpone the bill.
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