The first attempt by the national government to curb the monopolistic powers of the trusts came even before the trust movement proper had got under way. The practices of the old Standard Oil Company operated by its nine trustees had created suspicion in the minds of the people. Soon this suspicion was changed to distrust. Then a demand arose for some sort of regulative legislation. The result was the Sherman Anti-Trust Law of 1890. This law declared illegal "every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations." It also declared it to be unlawful for any person to "monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations." The essential feature of the law was its prohibition of the restraint of trade.

This law, as we have seen, was designed primarily to curb the illegal activities of the trusts. Yet during the first twenty years of its existence it failed signally to fill the want for which it had been designed. Suits were brought under the act; yet few juries were found that could distinguish between reasonable and unreasonable restraint of trade. Strangely enough, one of the suits successfully prosecuted was directed against a Connecticut labor union for restraining the trade of a firm of hatters. Finally in 1910 the government succeeded in having both the Standard Oil Company and the American Tobacco Company dissolved. The success of the government in these cases encouraged the Department of Justice to institute other suits. Four years later a new act added strength to the original anti-trust law by making some of its provisions more definite.

The Clayton Anti-Trust Law, enacted in 1914, exempted labor unions and farmers' cooperative associations from anti-trust prosecution. It declared illegal certain practices of one corporation owning stock in another corporation, and expressly forbade "unjustifiable discriminations in the prices charged to different persons." During the same year a federal trade commission was established with power to prevent discriminations in commerce, to make reports, and to investigate, at the request of the attorney general, alleged violations of the antitrust laws.