The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-28
SHARP MESSAGE ASKS
 CONGRESS TO LEGiSLATE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE CD.


 heartiest encouragement should be given to the WageW ofkers to form labor unions and to enter into agreement with their employers; and their right to strike, so long as they act peaceably, must be pre- served. But we should sanction neither a boycott nor a blacklist which would be Illegal at common law.
 TwofoId Measures.
 The measures I advocate are in the in- terest of decent corporations and of law abiding labor unions. They are, more- over, pre-eminently in the interest of the public, for in my judgment the Ameri- can people have definitely made up their minds that the days of the reign of the great law-defying and laW-evading cor porations are over, and that from this time on the mighty organizations of cap ital necessary for the transaction of busi- ness under modern conditions, while en- couraged so long as they act honestly and in the interest of the general public, are to be subjected to careful supervis- ion and regulation of kind so effective as to insure their acting in the interest of the people as whole.
 Allegations are often made to the ef- feet that there is no real need for these laws looking to the more effective control of the great corporations, upon the ground that they will do their work well without such control.. I call your at tention to the accompanying copy of a report just submitted by MT. Nathan Mat thews, chairman of the finance commits sion, to the mayor and CVity Council of Boston, relating to certain evil practices of various corporations which have been bidders for furnishing to the city iron and steel The report shows that there have been extensive combinations formed among the various corporations which have business with the city of Boston, in cludingl for instance, carefully planned combination embracing practically all the firms and corporations engaged in struc- tural steel work in New England. This combination included substantially all the local concerns, and many of the largest corporations in the United States, en- gagged in manufacturing or furnishing structural steel for use in any part of New England; it affected the states, the cities and towns, the railroads and street railways, and generally all persons having occasion to use iron or steel for any purpose in that section of the country. As regards the city of Boston, the com b'ration resulted in parceling out the work by collusive bids, plainly dishonest, and supported by false affrmations. In it's conclusions, the commission recom- mends as follows:
 Meaning of Methods.
 "Comment on the moral meaning of these methods and transactions would seem superhuous; but as they were defended at the public hearing of the commission and asserted to be common and entirely prop CT incidents of business life, and as these practices have been freely resorted to by some of the largest industrial corporations that the world has ever known the com mission deems it proper to record its own opinion.
 .'The commission dislilles to believe that these practices are, as alleged, established by the general custom of the business commuhity; and this defense itself, if un- challenged, amounts to grave accusa- ton against the honesty of present busi- ness methods.
 ITO answer an invitation for public or private work by sending in what purports to be genuine bids, but what in reality are colusive figures purposely made higher than the bid which Is known will be sub