Gilpin observer., 1908-03-26
BILL TO amend
SHERMAN ACT
PRE- SlDENT WILL SEND SPECIAL
MESSAGE TO CONGRESS
ABOUT 1T.
LABOR UNIONS UPHELD
eoYcOTTiNG, PlckETlNG AND
OTHER CoERCIve MEAS
uREs REMAIN UNDER BAN.

Washington.-The bill prepared by
the National Civic Federation. after
conferences with the President and
representatives of capital and labor. TO
relieve the stringency of the Sherman
antitrust law, was introduced in the
House Monday by Representative Hep
/ burn of Iowa, chairman OF the commit
tee on interstate and foreign COM
merce. 1t was referred by Speaker
Cannon to that committee for consid-
Grafton and report and 1t is understood
that President Roosevelt will in a
message to Congress make a recon-
mendation concerning it.
! There is no information on which to
frame prediction of the failure or sue
cess of the bill in the House, nor will
there be until the hearings have been
given in committee. Party leaders pro-
fessed to be wholly ignorant of the
details of the bill and to have only a
general understanding of its purpose.
one of the most interesting sections
of the federation bill is that which
seeks to relieve organized labor from
the oppressive effects of the recent
Supreme Court decision declaring la
Dor unions to be conspiracies in re-
straint of trade and therefore unlaw
full
The bill, broadly speaking, aims to
restore the unions their right to peace
able existence, including the right to
strike, but leaving them still amen
able TO the Sherman act in the matter
of boycctts, picketing and similar coer-
Give practices. The section is as fol-
lows:
Nothing in said act, approved July
:. 1890, or in this act is intended, nor
shall any provision thereof hereafter
be enforced, so as to interfere with
or to restrict any right of employees to
strike for any cause or to combine
or to contract with each other or with
employers, for the purpose of peace
ably obtaining from employers salts
factory terms for their labor or salts
factory conditions of employment, or
so as to interfere with or TO restrict
any right of employers for any cause to
discharge all or any of their employees,
or to combine or to contract with each
other or with employees, for the pur-
pose of peaceably obtaining labor on
satisfactory terms"
The bill as introduced does not at
tempt to change the legal status OF
anything condemned as in restraint of
trade under the Sherman antitrust
act; but it aims to provide a way
by which, under certain conditions,
combinations and contracts in re
straint of trade that are not unreason-
able may be saved from attack.
The benefits and immunities offered
by the proposed BILL therefore, will be
in the main confined to those who reg
lister in accordance with the terms of
the bill. Common carriers may regis
ter with the interstate commerce com.
mission. and all others with the com
missioner of corporations in the De,
partment of Commerce and Labor.
1t is proposed to amend section of
the Sherman antitrust act by cutting
out the provision for three-fold dam
ages, reducing 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.
Both corporations for profit and hav-
ing capital stock and also corporations
not for profit and not having capital
stock may register, but neither is
obliged to do so. This description is
intended to include cooperative organ
izations, as well as business corpora.
tions, labor organizations and the like.
II they do register, they get the bene-
f1ts of the act. II they do not register,
they remain under the Sherman anti
trust law unamended