Evening star., 1914-04-13
PASS TRUST BILLS,
WORD TO CONGRESS
President Is Opposed to Any
Plan to CurtaiI His Orig
inaI Program.
WILLING TO CONSOLIDATE
MEASURES NOW PENDING
Suggests Adoption of Express In
stead of Freight Schedule" to
Get Task Performed.

President Wilson and Chairman Clay
ton and Representatives Floyd and
Carlin of the House judiciary commit
tee, after an hours conference today,
agreed to consolidate in one measure
the main feature of the Sherman law
definitions bill and tho bills to pro-
hibit interIocking directorates and
holding companies.
The President agreed to the insertion in
an omnibus bill of the principles embodied
in two measures which passed the House
last year. providing for the regulation OF
inJunctionS i'll labor cases and trial by
jury in contempt cases
Mr.. Clayton said that, while they had
not discussed the proposed eXemp ton
from prosecution under the trust laws or
labor unions and farmers organizations,
he believed that legislation providing for
the abolition of the so-called ''midnight
injunctions" and jury trial in contempt
cases would be ample to coxer disputes
that had arisen in labor cases
Mr.. Clayton said he expected TO IN
troduce the combination bill covering
trade relations. holding companies and
interlocking directorates tomorrow, and
would submit it to the entire judiciary
committee in a few days, expecting ex-
peditious action.
There is to be no curtailment of the
administration program said MIR. Gay
ton THE President told US when we
asked him about it that he would in
sist on such legislation during the pres
ent session. We are practlcaiiy ready
with our bill now.
Firm for His Program.
Proposals in Congress to curtail the
administration trust legislative pro-
gram were not regarded today with
favor by President Wilson. He said
that while he had heard suggestions to
cut the program short and enact only
a trade commission bill, he deemed 1t
necessary 10 keep faith with the coun-
try and carry out measures for a COM
prehensive trust reform
Mr.. Wilson was asked if he believed
Congress could dispose of the trust pro-
gram and other pending questions and
get away from Washington by the middle
of summer and he laughingly remarked
that If an express schedule instead of
freight schedule were adopted there
would be no difficulty. He added that he
did not mean the cutting off of necessary
discussion. but that the committees had
worked very hard and had prepared leg
islation which he believed could be
promptly disposed Of
Members Favor Reducing Work.
The President has held that the anti
TRUST program, the canal tolls issue and
rural credits legislation all could be dis
posed of at this session without keeping
Congress in Washington until late in the
summer and interfering with the cam
paign activities of senators and repre-
sentatives seeking reelection. Many lead
ers in both houses, however, not so op-
timistic will urge the necessity of reduc-
ing the work to be done before adjourn
ment-
Moreover. advocates of ,the plan for
limiting the sessions trust legislation to
the creating of a trade commission will
contend that this step would eliminate
the possibility of mistakes through hasty
action on an all-important problem.
Members of the Senate interstate COM
merge committee already are proposing
to amend the trade commission Dill so as
to give the commission authority to in
vestigate the relation to big business of
ineerIocking directorates, holding compa
MES. stock-watering and the like.
| The results of such Investigations, they
argue, would be of untold value to Con-
gress in considering such measures as
| those proposed for the trust legislation
! program
! The President will discuss the situa-
ton with Representative Underwood. the
democratic floor leader in the House, as
we'll as with other party leaders in both
/ the House and Senate, within the next
day or two.
! Denial From Chairman New1apds.
! Senator Newlands, chairman of the in
terstate commerce committee of the Sen
ate, today gave out a statement denying
emphaticaly that there was any DISPOSE
ton on the part of himself or his COM
rnittee to postpone trust legislation until
the next session. He said:
| Il have heard of no suggestion in
| the committee on interstate commerce
! of any disposition to postpone trust
| legislation until the next session. On
| the contrary, the subcommittee in charge
| of the bill is making good progress IN
| preparation of u measure. The main
| difficulty lies at present in the con-
sideration of the form which should be
taken by the legislation relating to hold
| ing companies, interlocking directorates
and trade practices. / am confident that
before long satisfactory bill will have
been completed.