Los Angeles herald., 1890-03-27
ANTITRUST TALK.
The Sherman Bill Discussed
Pro and Con.
Legislative Legerdemain is
What Vest Terms 1t.
ingalls, Gives the Southern Senators
Grape and Canister.
The House Takes Up the Wyoming Admis-
sion Bill-The Woman's Suffrage
Clause Attacked.
Associated Press Dispatches. |


WASHINGTON, March 26.-In the Sen
ate this morning. after transactlng busl
ness OF minor Importance, the Anti-Trus
bill was taken up and various forma
amendments were made. Spoone
offered an amendment giving the court
authority to issue writs of injunction
prohibiting combinations from proceed
ing any further in business, except tt
wind up their affairs.
The legal bearing and effect OF tht
amendment, as well as the bill generally
were discussed by Spooner, Gray, Hoar
Stewart, Vest, Reagan and Eustis After
some remarks in reply to something
said by Reagan yesterday, Vest said he
would not say another word about the
Constitution. He was prepared "to join
the procession" He would like the
Senator from Ohio (Sherman) to say
whether he considered the clause incor-
porated in the bill by Ingalls's amend
ment lmposing tax on dealing in OPP
tons? constitutional or not. He char
acterized the bill as "a remarkable act
OF legislative legerdemain."
Eustis said he regarded the bill as the
grossest usurpation of States rights ever
attempted in the history of the Govern
ment.
Ingalls, said the amendment was not
intended to interfere with bargains. pur-
chases, sales or exchanges of any pro-
ducts of which parties might be DOS
sessed or be producers, or which they in
tended actually to deliver. 1t was di-
rected against the gigantic modern in
vention known as dealing in futures"
His amendment had been met at every
stage OF the proceedings by the interpo-
sltion OF some question of order, or some
question OF etiquette, or some question
OF constitutionality. The people OF the
United States, ingalls, continued, have
a reasonable degree OF respect for the
Constitution, but they are not afraid OF it.
The Constitution was growth and not
a manufacture, and the Constitution OF
1890 (by reason of the operation of the
will OF the people who made it), was
vastly different instrument from the
Constitution of 1889. Its authors would
not know it. They had made ii for a
specific purpose, not for the object
of enabling country lawyers to de-
wise definitions or to put obstacles
and barriers to the will of the people
But the Constitution was perpetually in
voked by narrow and rigid construction
lists, as an insuperable barrier against
every effort to benefit the condition OF
the people. The Senators supporting
the bill had been taunted with bad
faith; with false chivalry; with fighting
a sham battle, because they attempted
to carry into effect a provision which
was entirely within the limits and pur-
view of the Constitution. Those gentle
men (Eustis, George and Vest had
spent considerable time in endeayoring
to destroy that Constitution they now
plead on every occasion. There had
been no step in national progress in the
last thirty-tive years against which these
Senators have not risen and declared 1t
against the Constitution. He Qngalls)
recollected that there was once a great
demonstration to prove there was no
power in the Constitution to coerce a
State which saw fit to go out OF the
Union. There had been similar protests
against the abolition of slavery, recon-
struction laws, etc. Recently when a
resolution was offered to inquire into a
violation of the Constitution, it
was argued that the Government
had right to go anywhere
else in the world where the rights
of American citizens were violated, but
had no power to take care Of the rights
of American citizens assailed in Missis-
sippi. He commended to these con-
struers of the Constitution the contem-
plation of the result of their criticisms
during the last thirty years.
Vest said if the Senators representing
the Southern States were to be under
the prescriptions announced by the SEN
ator from Kansas, they might as well be
out of the Union. He was under obi
CATION to obey the Constitution, but not
to take the construction put upon it by
ingalls,. He moved an amendment to
Ingalls's amendment, making the license
$4,000, instead of 81, 900.
Eustis also replied to Ingalls's remarks
briefly, and argued against the amend
ment. If the Senator Qngalls) sought
to correct the morals of the people, he
(Eustis) asked him to leave out Louisi-
ana.
Ingalls-We want to take hold OF
your lottery by and by.
Vests amendment was then adopted,
as were also the following:
By Notwithstanding the provisions
of the bill to stocks and bonds.
By notwithstanding its powers to
cotton prints, steel rails, boots and shoes,
lead and lumber
By Blair-Including wooden goods and
whiskey, and all kinds OF intoxicating
drinks.
The committee of the whole then rose
and reported the bill, and after execu-
tive session the Senate adjourned.