Trust-busting refers to government activities designed to break up trusts or monopolies. Theodore Roosevelt is the U.S. president most associated with dissolving trusts, but his chosen successor, William Howard Taft, actually began the most of the anti-trust proceedings.

Trusts were large business entities that largely succeeded in controlling a market, essentially becoming a monopoly. The term became common in the late 19th century, when a system of trusts controlled much of the economy of the United States. In 1898, President William McKinley launched the "trust-busting" era when he appointed the U.S. Industrial Commission on Trusts, which interrogated Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Charles M. Schwab, and other industrial titans. The report of the Industrial Commission was seized upon by Theodore Roosevelt, who based much of his presidency on "trust-busting".

Senator John Sherman from Ohio, introduced legislation on July 2, 1890 to prevent trusts from forming.

See also

• Antitrust
• Andrew L. Harris, Governor of Ohio, appointed by McKinley to the Commission on Trusts
• Corporation
• United States v. E. C. Knight Co.
• History of the United States (1865-1918)
• U.S. Industrial Commission of 1898 (1898-1902)
• Thurman Arnold, headed Franklin Delano Roosevelt's trust-busting campaign in the Department of Justice

Politics | Monopoly (economics)