The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-24
ANTITRUST LAW
 ID BE AMENDED
tCoNTINUED FROM PAGE l.,

posed bill, therefore, will be in the main confined to those who register in accord- ance with the terms of the bill. Common carriers may register with the Interstate Commerce commission, and all others with the commissioner of corporations in the Department of Commerce and Labor. It is proposed to amend Section of the Sherman antitrust act by cutting out the provision for three-fod damages. redilc- ing the amount that can be collected to simple damages, as under the common law. Everybody, whether registered or not, will get the benefit of this provision.
 Corporations May Register.
 4 Both corporations for profit and hay ing capital stock and also corporations not for profit and not having capital stock may register, but neither are obliged to do so. This description is in tended to include cooperative organiza- tions, as well as business corporations, agricultural and labor organizations, and the like. If they do register, they get the benefits of the act. If they do not reg ister they remain under the Sherman an- ti-trust law, unamended. In order to reg ister corporations for profit and having capital stock are obliged to give such in
  dtion, their contracts, and their cor porate proceedings as may be prescribed by general regulations from time to time to be made by the President of the United States Corporations not for profit and not having capital stock. in order to register must set forth their charter or agreements of association and bylaws; the place of their principal office, and the names of their directors or managing of ficers and standing committees. if any. with their residences. Any corporation or association that Is registered may be stricken from the registry if it shall faf at any time to file the statements or to give the information required under this act, or to comply with the requirements of this act or in case information fur nished by it shall be false in any ma terial particular. Any one feeling az grieved by the decision to remove it from registry has an appeal to the courts.
 lmmunities Granted.
 B. Being upon the registry, the cor | poration. or association, or individual | gets certain immunities as to the past, 1 and the benefit of provisions by which | 1t can ascertain as to future contracts | whethe CT these will or will not be at tackled by the government as in un- | reasonable restraint of trade. AS to | future combinations or contracts, the government is given 30 days in which to disapprove any contract or agree ment filed by a corporation or asso- ciation registered under the act; and if within 30 days the government does not disapprove the contract, the gov ernment cannot thereafter attack it except through the courts, and then only on the ground that 1t is in un- reasonable restraint of trade. Contracts CT agreements calling for new business combinations must be filed. Contracts or agreements entered into in the or dinary course of business may be file 1 or not at pleasure. Such contracts, iH not fled do not get the benefit of the ,mmunities of the new act but nobody Is obliged to file such contract un- less he wants to do so.
 No New Proceedings.
 G. As to the past, it Is proposed that | ell pending actions may be prosecuted | and defended to final effect precisely as tn ough the Sherman antitrust law had not been amended; but that nc new proceedings shall be begun under the Sherman antitrust law on &C., count of any contract, agreement or | combination made prior to the passage of the amending act, unless the same 1 be in unreasonable restraint of trade; and no suit at all shall be begun by the United States as to registered cor l porations or associations under ths | Sherman antitrust law after one year from the passage of the amending act. | T. In view of the doubt that has been raised in the minds of many as to whether the Sherman antitrust act does not make even strike unlawful, | clause Is included in the bill dis tinctly reserving for labor all righ ts that they have now, irrespective of the Sherman antitrust act to combine and to strike and to make trade agree ments and reserving for employers of
 labor the correlative rights to combine and to discharge their employees.
 l 8. The foregoing summary of the bill | is a layman's summary. which does not attempt to use legal terms with legal exactness. It is believed however. that