The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1915-12-03
THE CLAYTON
ACT reviewed
Until 1t Became Law There
Was No Industrial Freedom.
A new BILL OF RIGHTS.

Under the Sherman Law, as Interpret
ed by the Courts, Workers Were Re-
aarded as Mere ChatteIs and Articles
of Commerce-What the Law Means
to Labor.
BY JAMES n. BARRY, Editor San
Francisco Star.
Patriotism was defined by DR.. John
son as 1.-The last refuge of scoundrel,"
but the Sherman antitrust law was,
until modified by the adoption of the
Clayton law, the first as well as the
last resort of refuge of powerful enc
mics of organized labor.
The Sherman law was all right when
properly invoked and interpreted as its
trainers undoubtedly thought it would
be, but by judicial decree it had be
come an instrument of tyranny and op-
preston, to be welded against those
who battle for human rights against
injustice or mans inhumanity to
man."
The courts have 50 perverted the in
tent and true meaning Of the law that
| under it wage earners were regarded
| not as human beings but merely chat
tells or things-commerci assets and
liabilities or articles of commerce to be
| bought and sold over the bargain
counter or in the open shop market.
They were enjoined by the courts
and their leaders cited and summarily
punished for contempt If the injunction
was disregarded or disobeyed. Under
such misinterpretation of the law man
hood could not safely assert itself and
industrial freedom was an impossible
ity.
The Clayton law is perhaps the most
important labor legislation ever en-
acted
1t gives lawyers no chance to quib-
bic over its meaning, which no Judge
dare distort, for the language is too
plain for even a child to misunder-
stand. The labor Of human being
is not a commodity or article of com
merce, declared the law
The workers have long been con
scious of that fact but the courts in
order to sustain their iniquitous deci-
sions have repeatedly been compelled
to treat labor as commodity or ar
ticle of commerce"
This declaration in the Clayton law
is bugle blast like unto that Of the
fathers Of the republic: "All men are
endowed by their Creator with GER
tain inalienable rights, among which
are life, liberty and the pursuit of hap
piness"
! Those rights as applied to organized
labor were trampled under foot by the
courts because the Sherman antitrust
law did not clearly and specifically
state, as the Clayton law does, that
the labor of a human being is not
commodity or article of commerce"
nor follow up that declaration with
bill of rights, in which are embodied
| acts heretofore declared unlawful,
which the Clayton act expressly makes
lawful in the following forceful Ian
guage: "Nor shall any of the acts speci-
fed in this paragraph be construed or
held to be violations of any law of the
| United States.
| Some of the acts enumerated and
| the rights unequiyocally guaranteed to
the workers by the section from which
l have quoted are in brief: The right
of free speech and free assemblage;
the right to discharge an employer or
to go on strike, ''Singly or in concert"
the right to persuade others to do like
wise; the right to picket and the right
| to cease patroniziDg and to induce 9th
ers to cease patronizing or to boycott
! anybody or any merchandise-even the
hats for boycotting which the Dan
bury hatters are now threatened with
the loss of their little homes.
All these things, Of course, must be
| done by peaceful means" but with
the liberty TO do them guaranteed by
law they can no longer be considered
conspiracies in restraint of trade
! When | contemplate all that the
Clayton law means to organized la
bor-the opportunity it gives for the
fulfllment of mans dearest hopes and
aspirations-I pause to also contem-
plate the crimes committed in the past
against labor In the name Of the law.
And / marvel that it has taken all
these years of struggle and travail, of
suffering and wrong, TO ring out the
old, ring in the new; ring out the false.
/ ring in the true" and 10 write into
the statutes of the United States this
great but simple truth, The labor of
a human being is not a commodity or
article of commerce.
But for the eternal vigilance and
persistent efforts Of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor, which has ever been
a mighty force for good. that "funda
mental principle which is the basis OF
Industrial liberty" might not have
been recognized by congress or enact
| ed into law until the crack of doom.