THE ROLL CALL
The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES A Wrongful Application of the Anti-trust Law CLASS LEGISLATION of the most vicious sort! That is what President Taft called it. He was referring to the provision...
...Vermont Aye—Greene, Plumley...
...The laws have been circumvented by the most dangerous and powerful of monopolies and trusts, which, through their control of banks, money and credit centered in Wall Street, are able to control the natural sources of the food, clothing and highways of the nation...
...Not Voting—Davis...
...It is unquestionably true that the Sherman anti-trust law was not understood by the people to apply to labor organizations or to farmers' associations—and it is a wrongful and mistaken judicial construction that has given it such an application...
...Useless as an instrument of good, perverted from its original intent, it has now been made an instrument of positive mischief...
...Minnesota Aye—Anderson, Hammond, Lindbergh, Miller...
...Nay—Steenerson, Stevens, Volstead...
...Idaho Aye—French...
...And Samuel Gompers says: "At the time the Sherman anti-trust law was passed we gave warning that it was so drawn that we feared a construction would be read into it so as to apply it to our unions instead of to the trusts which it was intended to restrain...
...Connecticut Aye—Reilly...
...The above roll call does not include the names of...
...Not Voting—Ansberry...
...Michigan Aye—Doremus, Hamilton, McLaughlin, Smith, J. M. C., Smith, S. W., Young...
...Pennsylvania Aye—Ainey, Difenderfer, Donohoe, Farr, Lee, Palmer, Porter...
...If a vote had been taken the Senate undoubtedly would have taken the same action as did the House...
...Not Voting—Sherley...
...Wyoming Aye—Mondell...
...Kentucky Aye—Cantrill, Fields, Helm, Johnson, Lang-ley, Powers, Rouse, Stanley, Thomas...
...Massachusetts Aye—Curley, Gardner, Greene, Murray, Peters...
...The platform submitted to the Republican National Convention at Chicago in June, 1912, by the delegates from Wisconsin and Nbrth Dakota declared: "We denounce that interpretation of the anti-trust law which uses it to suppress the unions and co-operative efforts of wage earners and farmers in protecting their labor against moneyed monopolies and we pledge a revision of the law making such construction impossible...
...The Present Duty A FEW days ago President John Kirby, Jr., of the National Association of manufacturers, addressed a letter to President Wilson urging him to pursue the policy of President Taft and "taking the liberty of calling your earnest attention to the inherent and impossible wrong represented by this particular provision...
...This money power, taking refuge under corporation law, in order to defy or evade the conspiracy laws, has crushed competitors and has built up financial monopolies in the interest of speculators, and against the interest of bona fide investors, producers, wage earners and farmers...
...Taft Vetoes the Bill IN THE last session of Congress "bills intro-duced in the House by Representative Bart-lett and by Senator Bacon in the Senate to accomplish this purpose both died, the one on the House calendar and the other in a pigeonhole of the Senate committee...
...Illinois Aye—Buchanan, Copley, Evans, Foster, Fowler, Gallagher, Graham, McDermott, Mann, Rainey, Stone...
...Representative Roddenbery of Georgia offered the following amendment: "Provided further that no part of this appropriation shall be expended for the prosecution of producers of farming products and associations of farmers who co-operate and organize in an effort io and for the purpose to obtain and maintain a fair and reasonable price for their products...
...In the following roll call the members voting "aye" voted to protect organizations of laborers and farmers from the institution of suite under the mistaken construction of the law by the courts and those who voted "nay" voted against labor: Alabama Aye—Blackmon, Burnett, Clayton, Dent, Hef-lin, Hobson, Richardson, Taylor...
...Not Voting—Haugen, Prouty...
...Not only should the immediate protection be granted that is called for in the provisions of the Sundry Civil Bill here discussed, but it should go farther and by specific laws overturn the judicial construction by which the unions have been dragged under the operation of this law aimed against trusts and monopolies in restraint of trade...
...Missouri Aye—Alexander, Booher, Borland, Dickinson, Hamlin, Hensley, Lloyd, Rubey, Rucker, Russell, Shackleford...
...Not Voting—Sparkman...
...Nevada Aye—Roberts...
...Not Voting—Barchfeld, Butler, Rothermel...
...The law has long been admitted to be of no value in restraining or really punishing trusts...
...Nay—Bartholdt, Dyer...
...Not Voting—Cox, Rauch...
...Nay—Whitacre...
...Maryland Aye—Konig, Lewis, Linthicum, Talbott...
...Not Voting—Danforth, George, Levy, Rior-dan, Smith, Talcott...
...Nay—Wilder...
...Mississippi Aye—Candler, Collier, Harrison, Humphreys, Sisson, Stephens, Witherspoon...
...Not Voting—Stephens...
...California Aye—Hayes, Kent, Raker, Stephens...
...Louisiana Aye—Broussard, Dupre, Estopinal, Morgan Watkins...
...We favor such separate classification of unions, associations, monopolies and trusts as shall abolish this pretense and shall establish real equality before the law...
...New Mexico Aye—Ferguson...
...Nay—Guernsey, Hinds...
...Not Voting—Konop...
...And when the bill passed the Senate two days later, the provisions were left in the bill exactly as they had passed the House...
...Arkansas Aye—Floyd, Goodwin, Jacoway, Oldfield, Taylor...
...Moon, Sims...
...It was stated again and again by Senators and Representatives that (to quote Senator Poindexter): "Congress never intended that this act should apply to labor unions...
...Representatives who are not now in Congress...
...The bill then went to the Senate...
...Nay—Burke, Griest, Langham, Moore, Patton, Yare...
...Virginia Aye—Carlin, Flood, Hay, Holland, Saunders...
...But Senator Poindexter, indignant at the treatment of the marchers in the woman suffrage parade by the Washington police on the previous day, seized the occasion to block the passage of the bill, which carried appropriations for the maintenance, among other things, of the Washington police force...
...He was referring to the provision in the Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill declaring that no part of the money appropriated for the work of the Department of Justice should be applied to the prosecution of labor organizations or farmers' associations under the Sherman anti-trust law...
...Nay—Anthony...
...Wisconsin Aye—Burke, Cary, Cooper, Esch, Nelson...
...Parran answered "Present...
...Despite the protests of manufacturing interests seeking a new weapon against organizations of labor, Congress and the President should carry out the plank of their platform pledging their party to legislation restoring the plain intent of the Sherman law...
...Not Voting—Dies, Slayden...
...Not Voting—Hamill, Wood...
...The platform of the Democratic party adopted last year at the Baltimore convention declared: "The expanding organization of industry makes it essential that there should be no abridgment of the right of the wage earners and producers to organize for the protection of wages and the improvement of labor conditions, to the end that such labor organizations, and their members, should not be regarded as illegal combinations in restraint of trade...
...Oregon Aye—Hawley, Lafferty...
...Nebraska Aye—Kinkaid, Lobeck, Maguire, Sloan...
...Indiana Aye—Adair, Barnhart, Cline, Cullop, Dixon, Gray, Korbly, Morrison, Moss...
...Georgia Aye—Adamson, Bartlett, Bell, Edwards, Hardwick, Howard, Hughes, Lee, Roddenbery, Tribble...
...The event which we feared has come to pass...
...Not Voting—Gillett, Roberts...
...Change the Law...
...By judicial interpretation they have given an application of this statute which was not intended...
...AYEAR ago La Follette's said editorially: "The law should be amended so as to get back to its original intent by taking out from under its operation all labor organizations and all employers' associations...
...Colorado Aye—Rucker, Taylor...
...On February 26 the Senate Committee on Appropriations reported the bill to the Senate, leaving these two provisions in it...
...This, too, was adopted by the House...
...North Dakota Aye—Helgesen...
...It went to the Senate on the closing day of the session...
...New Jersey Aye—Kinkead, McCoy, Scully, Townsend, Tuttle...
...Under the pretense of equal treatment of capital and labor, the farmer and the laborer, whose capital is their labor, and their savings from their labor, have been compelled to pay toll to those whose capital is their power to withhold money and credit from the commerce and industry of the country...
...Where farmers and wage earners are compelled to organize in order to protect their labor and the products of their labor, we favor the most complete liberty of organization of labor under laws promoting publicity, collective bargaining and voluntary arbitration...
...Not Voting—Byrnes...
...North Carolina Aye—Doughton, Faison, Godwin, Gudger, Kitchin, Page, Pou, Small, Stedman, Webb...
...Not Voting—Brown, Hughes...
...South Carolina Aye—Aiken, Finley, Johnson, Lever...
...Iowa Aye—Good, Green, Kennedy, Pepper, Scott, Towner, Woods...
...This amendment was adopted by the House...
...New York Aye—Conry, Driscoll, D. A., Fitzgerald, Gold-fogle, Harrison, Maher, Mott, Patten, Underbill, Wilson...
...How the Problem Arose WHEN the Sherman anti-trust law was passed by Congress in 1890 there was no intimation that it was aimed at organizations of laborers and farmers having in view the betterment of working conditions, the increasing of wages or the maintaining of fair and reasonable prices for farm products by methods that are not of themselves unlawful...
...Not Voting—Kahn, Knowland...
...What will Congress and the President do, under the Wilson administration...
...Not Voting—Humphrey...
...Nay—Fordney...
...Beaten by the Clock WHEREUPON the House immediately passed the bill over the President's veto by a vote of 264 ayes, 48 nays, 3 present and 66 not voting...
...As was said in the platform of the Republican party of Wisconsin in 1910: "The operation of federal and state anti-trust and conspiracy laws has been productive of flagrant inequalities...
...Nevertheless the courts have brought labor unions within the application of the anti-trust law...
...Not Voting—Garrett, Padgett, Sells...
...Rhode Island Aye—O'Shaunessy...
...But despite the overwhelming rejection of the Taft veto by the House and the repassage of the bill, it failed to become a law...
...Florida Aye—Clark...
...These very laws that have failed to prevent financial industrial monopoly have been used to suppress the unions and co-operative efforts of wage earners and farmers in their struggle to protect the value of their labor against moneyed interests...
...Maine Aye—Gould, McGillicuddy...
...And he vetoed this appropriation bill for the single reason that this provision was contained in it...
...Nay—Browning, Gardner...
...Nay—McKenzie...
...West Virginia Aye—Davis...
...Texas Aye—Beall, Burgess, Callaway, Garner, Gregg, Hardy, Henry, Moore, Smith, Stephens, Young...
...Oklahoma Aye—Carter, Davenport, Ferris, McGuire, Morgan...
...Arizona Aye—Hayden...
...When the bill went to President Taft he vetoed it...
...Not Voting—Covington...
...On February 20, 1913, when the Sundry Civil Appropriations Bill was being considered, by the House of Representatives and when that section of the bill was reached making appropriations for the enforcement of the anti-trust laws, Congressman Hamill of New Jersey offered the following amendment: "Provided, however thai no part of this money shall be spent in the prosecution of any organization or individual for entering into any combination or agreement having in view the increasing of wages, shortening of hours, or bettering, the condition of labor, or for any act done in furtherance thereof not in itself unlawful...
...We know the Sherman law was intended by Congress to punish illegal trusts and not the labor unions, for we had various conferences with Members of Congress while the Sherman act was pending, and remember clearly that such a determination was stated again and again...
...South Dakota Aye—Burke...
...Efforts were made to secure a vote before the hour of adjournment was reached...
...Not Voting—Madden, Sabath...
...Nay—Calder, Driscoll, M. E., Fairchild, Mer-ritt, Payne...
...Utah Aye—Howell...
...Not Voting—Glass, Jones, Slemp...
...So the bill was killed by this debate, and by the clock...
...Tennessee Aye—-Austin, Byrns, Houston, Hull, MeKel-lar...
...Washington Aye—La Follette...
...He did so, as he expressed it, for the reason that it contained these two provisions which he declared were "class legislation of the most vicious sort...
...Not Voting—Gill...
...Not Voting—Martin...
...Kansas Aye—Campbell, Murdock, Neeley, Taggart...
...Ohio Aye—Allen, Ashbrook, Bathrick, Bulkley, Claypool, Francis, Goeke, Post, Sharp, Sherwood, Switzer, White, Willis...
...Not Voting—Underwood...
Vol. 5 • May 1913 • No. 18
