by George Howard Earle, Jr.

“ Why was a man permitted to covenant that he would protect a good-will that he had sold? Simply because every one, for centuries, had considered that the best way of insuring that the business would go on; would maintain, or increase trade. No one had thought that a man would invest capital in a business that he might destroy it. Just a few months before the Knight case this subject had been carefully considered by the House of Lords itself, and a similar conclusion reached. ”

“ In view of all this, it is absolutely impossible to say that he was finding that it was lawful and "sanctioned" by the States, or any of them, to deprive the country of its industrial agencies, to destroy business, stop commerce and production, that national trade might be limited and the profits of monopoly be swollen! ”

“ The Knight Case
Whatever the crimes perpetrated in the name of "liberty," they are not a circumstance to those sought to be justified by the opinion of Chief Justice Fuller in United States vs. Knight. [1]
And yet, that was perhaps the most ably argued of all the trust cases, and resulted in two of the most learned opinions—those of the Chief Justice and of Mr. Justice Harlan—to be found in the reports. Indeed, in the one or the other of those opinions can be found the foundation of most of the doctrines that have been enunciated since. ”