You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Wednesday October 21, 1914
From the American Federation of Labor: Samuel Gompers Praises Clayton Act
President Wilson
Signed the Clayton Act
on October 15th
Samuel Gompers
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
On October 15th, President Wilson signed the Clayton Act into law. The pen used in the signing of the bill was sent to Samuel Gompers and will be given the place of greatest honor within the collection of famous pens at A. F. of L. headquarters.
Mr. Gompers has high praise for the Clayton Act, the signing of which, he states is a great victory in the battle for industrial freedom:
On October 16, the following letter was received, accompanied by the pen with which the law was signed:
The White House, Washington, October 15, 1914.
Dear Mr. Gompers: I take pleasure in sending you herewith one of the pens used by the President in signing H. R. 15657, entitled "An Act to supplement existing laws against unlawful restraint and monopolies, and for other purposes," commonly known as the Clayton bill. The bill was approved by the President this morning.
Sincerely yours, J. T. Tumulty,
Secretary to the President.
Mr. Samuel Gompers,
American Federation of Labor,
Washington, D. C.
This pen with which the President signed the Clayton bill has been added to the collection of famous pens at the A. F. of L. headquarters—trophies of humanitarian legislation secured for the workers of America. This last pen will be given the place of greatest honor—it is symbolic of the most comprehensive and most fundamental legislation in behalf of human liberty that has been enacted anywhere in the world. The Clayton law gives bones and sinews to an academic ideal of freedom—it secures industrial freedom and makes the workers free in thought and in act.
The day after President Wilson signed the Clayton bill...the New York World, a "capitalist sheet," published the following editorial, under the caption—A Legislative Landmark:
The Clayton Antitrust bill, signed yesterday by the President, may not be the last word on the subject, but it ends for the time being an agitation that has been in progress for years and it is a fulfillment of another emphatic party promise.
To the extent that it relieves labor unions lawfully conducted from the pains and penalties of the Sherman act, it is the most impressive legislative reversal of judicial decisions that has taken place in this country since the Dred Scot judgment was overturned by civil war.
In other respects as affecting the administration of the Antitrust law, extending its scope and clarifying some of its meanings, it is quite as notable. No ceremony attended the approval of this measure, and yet it is likely to be regarded hereafter as a landmark of justice and progress.
The New York Call, the Socialist paper, on the same date, that is, October 16, had no editorial comment, but published the following:
The Dear Old Clayton Bill is Signed
Washington, Oct. 15.—President Wilson today signed the Clayton antitrust bill, thus taking the last step to complete the administration's present program of legislation affecting big business.
In a letter to Representative Underwood, dated October 17, President Wilson expressed the following interpretation of the purpose and the meaning of the Clayton act as it applies to the workers:
Incidentally, justice has been done the laborer. His labor is no longer to be treated as if it were merely an inanimate object of commerce disconnected from the fortunes and happiness of a living human being, to be dealt with as an object of sale and barter. But that, great as it is, is hardly more than the natural and inevitable corollary of a law whose object is individual freedom and initiative as against any kind of private domination.
In these incisive and forceful words, President Wilson endorsed the principle for which the workers have waged their long fight. With the industrial freedom secured by this legislation the workers enter upon an era of unparalleled opportunity and promise. They will use that opportunity wisely and faithfully for all humanity.
From an article by Mr. Gompers in the American Federationist:
The workers of America are organized to fight the battle for industrial freedom and justice. That purpose has made them an active force in all the diverse interests that influence our problem. One of the most significant fights we have been waging during the past years is the effort to establish a fundamental principle necessary for real freedom. Although slavery had everywhere in the United States been legally abolished, yet the workers found their efforts for self-protection and self-help thwarted and restricted by legal precedents, judicial interpretation, and applications of laws dealing with property.
This was the influence of a philosophy evolved under conditions when workers were not free and their persons and hence their labor power were regarded legally as property in which their owners or employers had a property right. When the workers became physically free the traditional element in the law which concerned their labor power was unchanged. The judiciary looks backward for authority, not forward. It is necessary to change this legal philosophy in order to secure to workers the right to legitimate activities which alone give freedom reality and value. Freedom as an abstract declaration has little practical value. Real freedom, which consists in specific rights to do things, is the potent force that has brought the human race to its present state of progress and development.
A worker can not be part human and part thing; part free and part unfree. If he is a free human being that which is inseparable from his personality, which is part of his flesh and blood and nerve force, can not be classified as property. Employers may own plows, machines, shovels, hammers, but they do not own the labor of any free man. Labor is the creative force, the highest expression of individuality.
The Clayton antitrust bill that has been passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate declared as a legal principle of the law of our land the declaration:
THE LABOR POWER OF A HUMAN BEING IS NOT A COMMODITY
OR AN ARTICLE OF COMMERCE.
That is the reason for declaring that labor organizations do not come under the provisions of trust legislation and that their legitimate activities can not be restrained or forbidden. This principle is the basis upon which all industrial liberty depends.
It is the Magna Carta of America's workers.
The labor provisions of this measure embody the highest, fullest conception of industrial freedom ever enacted into law. The declaration contained in section 7 of the Clayton antitrust bill is of the greatest significance—it deals with the fundamentals of industrial freedom.
The workers of America may, on Labor Day, 1914, rejoice in the fact that the Senate and the House of Representatives have adopted the greatest measure of humanitarian legislation of the world's history. We stand foremost in the ranks of all nations. This measure will insure greater industrial justice and peace. It opens up an era of tremendous possibilities and undertakings for good.
Other features of the Clayton bill limit and regulate the issuance of the writ of injunction which has been so grossly perverted by judicial abuse to defeat the workers in their struggle for more just wages, shorter workdays, and better working conditions.
The enactment of this law will mark the beginning of an era of progress and betterment in the lives of those who work for wages. Their progress and welfare mean national progress and welfare....
[emphasis added, paragraph break added]
Also from the October edition of the American Federationist:
EDITORIAL: LABOR NOT A COMMODITY by SAMUEL GOMPERS
This great principle is about to be established as a law of our land:
THE LABOR OF A HUMAN BEING IS NOT A COMMODITY
OR AN ARTICLE OF COMMERCE.
The fight which the workers of America have waged for that principle with unfailing persistence and determination resulted in a momentous victory when on September 2 the Senate passed the Clayton antitrust bill.
The Senate Judiciary Committee reported the bill with some amendments. None of these materially modified the labor sections of the bill except the amendment striking out the clause of section 18 which provided for the right to picket. When the labor sections were under discussion Senator Cummins offered a substitute for section 7 of the bill which contained a definite declaration of the meaning of labor power, and provided for the right of existence and operation of labor organizations, limitation and regulation of the issuance of injunctions, the right to picket and to withhold or bestow patronage, the right of peaceful assemblage. But the substitute omitted one important feature contained in the Clayton bill as reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee and was thereupon defeated. But the declaration of a fundamental principle contained in Senator Cummins' substitute was then proposed by the Judiciary Committee on the floor of the Senate in this language:
THE LABOR OF A HUMAN BEING IS NOT A COMMODITY
OR AN ARTICLE OF COMMERCE.
Section 7 as passed by the Senate is as follows:
That the labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce. Nothing contained in the antitrust laws shall be construed to forbid the existence and operation of labor, agricultural, or horticultural organizations, instituted for the purposes of mutual help, and not having capital stock or conducted for profit, or to forbid or restrain individual members of such organizations from lawfully carrying out the legitimate objects thereof, nor shall such organizations, orders or associations, or the members thereof, be held or construed to be illegal combinations or conspiracies in restraint of trade under the anti trust laws.
The opening statement of this section of the bill gives it strength and virility. This declaration removes all possibility of interpreting trust legislation to apply to organizations of the workers and their legitimate associated activities. This declaration recognizes the essential difference between the labor power of the worker and that which he produces. Governmental regulations, trust laws, may rightfully apply to the products of labor, but they do not rightfully apply to the labor power of a free man. The debates in Congress upon this principle prove most conclusively the broad humanity and desire for human welfare that characterize the minds of the statesmen who enacted this legislation. This principle which for years could find little favor among those in authority is now an accepted principle of industrial freedom. The amendment to section 7 was accepted by the Senate without a dissenting voice.
As a substitute for the picketing clause of section 18 which the Judiciary Committee has stricken out the Senate adopted the following:
Or from attending at any place where such person or persons may lawfully be for the purpose of peacefully obtaining or communicating information.
This was also accepted without a dissenting voice. This section of the bill was further strengthened by amending the last clause to read
nor shall any of the acts specified in this paragraph be considered or held to be violations of any law of the United States.
The bill was sent to conference. It is understood that the labor sections of the bill have been agreed to by the conferees and that an early report is expected upon the bill.
The workers of America have won a great victory for themselves and for all humanity. The principle and the rights incorporated in labor provisions of the Clayton antitrust bill will be the foundation upon which the workers can establish greater liberty and greater opportunity for all those who do the beneficent work of the world.
[emphasis added]
----------
SOURCE
The American Federationist, Volume 21, Part 2
-Samuel Gompers, John McBride, William Green
American Federation of Labor, 1914
(search with "Clayton Act" & choose p. 859 & 866)
(search with "Tumulty" & choose p.973)
http://books.google.com/...
IMAGES
Woodrow Wilson
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Samuel Gompers
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
American Federationist, October 1914
(search with "October 1914," choose p.849)
http://books.google.com/...
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
I Still Ain't Satisfied - Bonnie Lockhart
Democrats won in Oh Eight, but I still ain’t satisfied,
‘Cause we still got a corporate state, and I still ain't satisfied
It’s not the party of the hour
It’s the Wall Street gang that’s got the power
And I still ain’t, woa, they lied (x3)
And I still ain’t satisfied.
-Bonnie Lockhart
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````