United labor bulletin., 1914-09-12
LABOR DEFENDED In SENATE
BY ASHURST OF ARIZONA
CANNOT DODGE EXEMPTION OF
UNIONS UNDER SHERMAN LAW.
Improper Use of Injunction Has Greatly
Crippled Efforts of Wage Earners to
Better Their Condition, He Says.

While the Senate, sitting as in COM
mittee of the whole, was considering
the Clayton antitrust bill, Senator
Ashrust of Arizona, took occasion to de-
liver lengthy and vigorous speech in
favor of the labor sections of the pro-
posed law,
He declared that it was useless to
disguise, dodge or evade the one great
question that calls for settlement-the
exemption of trade unions from trust
classification. The Arizona legislator in
sisted that he had found no record to
sustain the position of contrary minded
people, and read at length excerpts from
the utterances of Senators Sherman,
George, Hoar, Teller and others who
protested, during the discussion on the
original Sherman antitrust bill, that
there was no intention to include labor.
''It is idle," said Seatonr Ashurst,
merely to say labor has the right to a
living and decent wage unless We sup
plement that assertion by granting labor
the power to enforce its demand for a
living wage. When | use the term
living wage 1 do not mean a wage
which will afford bread alone,' but
mean wage which will afford proper
food, clothing. shelter, some leisure time
to devote to the family, to books, music
philosophy, and, in general, an opportun-
ity to have sufficient respite from ex-
acting toll to enjoy some of the ideal
| istic, aesthetic and spiritual sides of life
which adds zest, grace and beauty to
human existence.
at has been asserted that it is dan
gerous for laborers to possess the power
to compel compliance with their de-
mands for a living wage. / reply that
/ 10 ,,Ia Il
nopoiy, oppression, tyranny, avarice, and
! greed-but is wholesome to the general
welfare and to public tranquility. In
Z ternal dangers to a state need never
be apprehended from general desire
and effort on the part of the creators
of wealth to promote their own eff
cheney. improve and eXalt their own sta
tion, for if laborers were to refuse to
try to improve their own condition it
would be tantamount to their seeking
wantonly their own self-destruction."
Senator Ashurst was just az emphatic
in his advocacy of the sections of the
bill which limit the issuance OF injunc-
tions. He said:
"The proper energies and reasonable
activities of labor organizations have
been greatly injured and hindered by the
improper use and abuse of the injunc-
tlOH, because some courts nave pro-
ceeded upon the hypothesis that labor
power is property, such as mechanical
and electrical contrivances. cattle, horses
and so forth. Some courts of equity
have usurped jurisdiction and power to
restrain laborers from doing the things
they had lawful right to do and which
in many instances, it was necessary for
them to do to promote their own in
terests and rise sbove the conditions OF
serfdom; for instance, injunctions have
forbidden laborers to use the public high.
ways and have forbidden them peace
fully to consider their own condition
Laborers have been forbidden by injunc-
tion to pay strike benefits or to exercise
the right of free speech. Therefore, in
order to prevent any further abuse OF
this judicial power, these provisions OF
sections and 10 to % inclusive of the
Clayton bill have been written in this
4 proposed legislation, and are known as
the 1aborers' bill of rights"