Early in the decade that goaded President Theodore Roosevelt to swing his
trust-busting big stick at more than 40 major U.S. corporations, several Shelby County,
Ohio businesses joined to dull the edge of price competition. The smithies forged an
agreement for "the protection of those engaged in that business and the adoption
of a uniform price for blacksmith work." The new price-fixing organization was
named the Blacksmith and Horseshoers Association of Shelby county, with 25 area
blacksmiths attending the organizing meeting (Shelby County Democrat, Apr. 13,
1900).
Price
fixing was becoming quite popular in Shelby County. The liverymen of Sidney – C.E. Bush,
T.F. Shaw, T.M. Hussey, T.W. Johnston, and Sargeant & Princehouse – grew tired of
horsing around on the competitive field and saddled the public with this announcement:
"On and after April 1, 1900, the following uniform price will be adopted for boarding
horses: Twelve dollars per month (Sidney Daily News, Mar. 26, 1900). Barbers
in Sidney, too, sought to cut competition by setting uniform prices for "shaves (10
cents), hair cuts (25 cents), hair singeing (10 cents), beard trimming (10 cents), and
razor honeing (25 cents)" (SDN, Mar. 26, 1900).
Another barber, outside the tonsorial trust and already sympathetic to
Roosevelt’s coming trust-busting campaign, used the newspaper to whisper this in the
public’s ear: "The ‘Anti-trust Barber Shop’ has cut over a hundred
heads of hair in the past week" (SDN, May 4, 1900).
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