Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1914-08-27
Labor Defended In Senate.


Washington, D.. c., Aug. 27.-While
the Senate, sitting as a. committee Of
the whole, was considering the Clay
ton antitrust bill, Senator Ashurst, OF
Arizona, took occasion to deliver a.
lengthy and vigorous speech in favor
of the labor sections Of the proposed
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
insisted that he had found no record
to sustain the position of contrary
minded people, and read at length
excerpts from the utterances of Sena-
tors Sherman, George, Hoar, Teller,
and others, who protested during the
discussion on the original Sherman
antitrust bill, that there was no in
tention to include labor.
1T is idle" said Senator Ashurst,
merely to say labor has the right to
a living and decent wage unless we
supplement that assertion by grant
ing labor the power to enforce it's de-
mand for a living wage. When I use
the term living wage do not mean
wage which will afford bread alone,
but l 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 opportunity to have suffi-
Gent respite from exacting toll to en-,
joy some of the idealistic, aesthetic
and spiritual sides of life, which adds
zest. grace, and beauty to human ex
istence.
''It has been asserted that it is dan
gerous for 1aborers to possess the
their demands for a living wage.
reply that such power is indeed dan.
gerous-to monopoly, oppression
tyranny, avarice, and ~gTeed-but j.
wholesome to the general welfare and
] to public tranquility. Internal, dan
gers to a state need never be appre.
hended from general desire and eff
fort on the part of the creators OF
wealth to promote their own efficiency
improve and exalt their own station
| for if laborers were to refuse to try
to improve their own condition ii
would be tantamount to their seeking
wantonly their own self-destruction.
Senator Ashurst was just as empha.
tic in his advocacy of the sections OF
the bill which limit the issuance OF
injunctions. He said:
"The proper energies and reasonable
activities of labor organizations have
been greatly injured and hindered by
improper use and abuse of the in.
junction, because some courts have
proceeded upon the hypothesis thta
labor power is property, such as me.
chanical and electrical contrivances,
cattle, horses, and SO forth. Some
courts of equity have usurped jurisdic-
ton and power to restrain laborers
from doing the things they had law
full right to do and which, in many
/! instances, it. was necessary for them
F to do to promote their own interests
and rise above the conditions of serf-
dom; for instance, inffunctions have
forbidden. laborers to use the public
highways and have forbidden them
peacefully to consider their own con-
dition. Laborers have been forbidden
by Injunction 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 Is
to % inclusive Of the Clayton bill
have been written in this proposed
legislation, and are known as the
laborers' bill Of rights"