ABSTRACT
President Benjamin Harrison signed the Sherman Act into law on July 2, 1890} His Attorney General, William Miller, did little to enforce the Act, as his small staff of attorneys was already overburdened. A year after the Sherman Act became law no special instructions regarding its enforcement had yet been issued to the U.S. district attorneys. 2
JohnRuhm,U.S.districtattorneyfortheMiddleDistrictof Tennessee,initiatedthefirstfederalactionunderthenewlaw. Ruhm'seffortwastheonlyfederalattempttoenforcethe ShermanActduringitsfirstyearofexistence,anditwasonly withconsiderabledifficultythathemanagedtoreceiveofficial authorizationandfunding.3Despiteadministrativeobstacles, however,RuhmfiledapetitionintheUnitedStatesCircuitCourt fortheMiddleDistrictofTennesseeagainstthemembersofthe NashvilleCoalExchange[NCE]onSeptember25,1890.The petitionarguedthattheNashvilleCoalExchangewasanillegal combinationinrestraintoftradeandaskedthatitsmembersbe "enjoinedandrestrainedfromfurthermonopolizingandcarryingonthecoaltradeinNashville." 4
TheNCEincludedseveralKentuckymineoperatorsandlarge Nashvillecoalwholesalerswhoconspiredtofixthepriceof domesticcoalintheNashvillemarket.'Thesewholesaledealers purchasedcoalfrommineoperatorsandresoldittoretailersin Nashvilleaswellassellingdirectlytolarge-volumefinalcustomers.TheExchangecontrolledabout800Joofthecoalsoldfor
residential heating in Nashville in 1890. Although all Exchange members were defendants in the case, Jellico Mountain Coal & Coke Company was named first and consequently the case is usually identified by its name. Ruhm specified Jellico first because he intended to use Jellico's operations to establish interstate commerce. Jellico mined its coal in eastern Tennessee and shipped its supply to Nashville via Kentucky.6 Ironically, it was later revealed that Jellico had abandoned its Exchange membership prior to the filing of the petition, but the case title continued to bear its name despite subsequent dismissal of the charges against Jellico itself.
