Contracts in Restraint of Trade.

The article discusses on the book "Is a Contract in Restraint of Trade Sustainable As an Independent Contract?" by Frederick H. Cooke. The author contends that only such restraints should be sanctioned as are incidental to a larger contract, as of sale or employment. He argues that the reason for the general rule invalidating agreements in restraint of trade is the evil produced by the withdrawal of a capable member of society from active production that this evil may at times be tolerated when, by the transfer of business, another member of society is given the opportunity, new or enlarged, of engaging in the same line of activity, but not otherwise that the independent contract involves no such transfer, and consequently is not to be sustained.