The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-17
PRESIDENT WILSON APPROVES PROPOSED ANTITRUST BILLS
C0nfers With House .Iudici- ary COmmittee--COnsOli- datiOn of Bills to Rush
 Legislation Favored

Washington, March 16.-President Will son. at a conference with the House ju- dietary subcommittee on trusts, put the stamp of administration approval on the substance of the four bills to amend the antitrust laws which the committee sub mitted in final form. There will be an- other conference at the White House within a week, and members of the com ,nittee asserted tonight that unless pro- tracted discussion should be raised in are presented all four bills to strengthen the Sherman law, covering interlocking directorates. holding companies, trade re- lations and definitions of restraints Of trade would be reported to the House within a fortnight.
 President Wilson indicated his belief that it would be better to consolidate all the bills into one, in order to expedite leg islation. The Senate interstate commerce committee is understood to favor con solidation and that it would be effected by the House judiciary committee prac- tically is certain.
 Makes Suggestions
 The President made a number of sug. gestions to the subcommittee which com. prised Representatives Clayton, Alabama Carlin, Virginia and Floyd, Arkansas H, insisted that personal guilt of holding corporations, but not to subsidiaries, II drawing the line at substantial competi I tors. It includes cotton mills if made I up Of moving picture concerns, whfcf sought exemption, and would strike al 1,, Ri; which made pleas before the committee The so-called theatre trust also would bs affeot ted. Theatre corporations which 1 hold two theatres in any one city, un- 1 less 1t could be proven that they wer, absolutely non-competing, would be pro- hibited, but the bill would not destroy 8 | chain of theatres in different cities ir which there was no element of competi | ton.
 l None of the four bills as now framed
 provide for exemption of labor unions | from antitrust prosecutions Senator Hughes of New Jersey, Is expected tc present an amendment for that purpose if the bills as they finally reach tho
 senate have no such exemption. Labor
 organizations, particularly the American Federation of Labor, have urged the Ba cor-Bartlett bil which would exemp from any prosecution under the Sherman 1 law associations organized wholly fol
 the promotion of labor.
 1 Prohibits Price Fixing
 1 The trade relations bill prohibits manp facturers from contracting to prevent { merchant from handling competitors
 goods It prohibits final price fixing tt
 consumer. though it permits the manufac 1 turer or wholesaler to fix the prices a, | which goods shall be sold in the first in stance, as from manufacturer to jobber l Under this restriction, the first sale of manufactured article by its produces would be at the same price everywhere plus the cost of transportation. This bil gives the right of injunction to individ 1 uals for threatened loss or damage ant ! the right to make use of a government l degree against any corporation.
 1 The interlocking directorates bill in 1 cludes provision to prohibit directors il
 various corporations selling to compane l in which they are directors. The defi l nitions bill embodies such definitions al
 seem not to have been covered by decis ions of the courts.
 Washington. March i6.--One trust rcgu lation bill instead of several. as origi nally proposed. has been determined upol by the Senate subcommittee on interstat
 commerce as the policy the administration
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