The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Dodd, Samuel Calvin Tate
1836–1907, American lawyer, b. Franklin, Pa. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1859. Dodd was employed by the Rockefeller interests and is credited with devising the business trust arrangement by which John D. Rockefeller was able to consolidate control of many companies engaged in producing oil. Dodd strongly opposed the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890). He organized (1899) the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the result of Rockefeller’s consolidations and one of the earliest of the large holding companies. His view that only “unreasonable” combinations in restraint of trade should be illegal was adopted by the Supreme Court in 1911; later revisions of this decision declared certain actions to be unreasonable per se.
