| Show FOUGHT BY WILSO EXEMPTION OF LABOR UNION AND FARMERS RS PROM FROM TRUST LAWS PLANNED IS AWKWARD FOR PRESIDENT lf paragraph ie id inserted in animo i measure Conita Cons latency tency would require that ho he veto the i entire legislation dy BY GEORGE CLINTON washington it la 12 possible blo that president wilson may bo be obliged to use his personal jul 1 cuenco to prevent hie ills partly in aa from inserting in ono of tho the anti trust bills a paragraph which may cause trouble the president it la is known la Is opposed to any legislation which will exempt cor tain organizations from prose prosecution cutlan under tho the anti trust lawn but it Is believed that tho the majority ma joity in congress Is preparing to insert just auch such a provi alion into pending legislation and mr wilson it Is said wante wants to stop it it la is the intention of theao these democrats who probably can dominate the house to secure the insertion in one of tho the antitrust laws of a provision which shall from prosecution labor unions and farmers org organizations aulza it Is 16 of course tho the intention of tho the democrats to make some exceptions the organizations of tho the kind named of course can bo prosecuted if it they do certain things but they first aro are not to be prosecuted tor for entering into any combination or agreement having in view an increase of wages a shortening of hours a bettering of the conditions of labor or and most moist important for any act done in furtherance thereof that la is not I 1 in a itself unlawful ae As for tho the farmers organizations it is in intended to exempt them from prosecution when iben v they cooperate in an effort to obtain and maintain a fair nad reasonable price for their products fear it will be abused on face faco of things this leg legislation tala may look fair tair and square perhaps it Is for blany of the legislators legle latora and thousands of their constituents aro to coming to the belief th that at labor and ik 0 the farmer should be put into classes by themselves and should be helped by ir legislation which would be perhaps unconstitutional it if enacted in favor of any other classes or divisions if you will of the citizenship of the united states the objections which will be entered to tho the legislation rest upon what some men eay bay Is the certainty that it will be abused and that it it be becomes Lornes a part of the law of the me land labor unions will be allowed to do what they will unchecked and that the fanner farmer will be allowed to raise prices to the sky provided he can do it through operation cooperation co with bis his fellow fellows I last ast year tho democrats did what they could to exempt labor and the farmer from prosecution under the sherman anti trust law in the sundry civil bill which was passed one year ago this month there was inserted a proVi provision slon forbidding that any of tho money voted for the use of the attorney gener generals als office in the trusts should be used to prosecute labor a unions and farmers organizations engaged in such lines of endeavor as hose those drawn above mr tatt taft vetoed this bill as one of the last acts of bis big administration in march last the democrats re passed the sundry civil bill in virtual ly IY the form in ach it was sent to mr tatt president prisident wilson approved the measure but attached to it a memorandum condemning the principle of special exempt exemption on of organizations of 0 armora farmers or 07 laboring men from prosecution ar lir maintaining combinations in rest restraint mint of trade and 1 commerce would tie oIda hande hands after president wilson had signed the sundry civil bill including the exemption clauses attorney genelar started a prosecution of labor unionists in west virginia he was not allowed to use any of 0 the sundry civil bill money in the case but thero there were funds at his disposal which enabled him to secure indictments carry the matter mater into court and start the trials this wai was pointed to by the administration as showing allowing that it had no intention of exempting abor labor unions from the operation of the iberman herman anti antitrust trust law I 1 if the democrats however cany carly out their present intention and exempt the unions and the farmers lions from prosecution by means of an actual law of exemption the bands of the president and his attorney general will be tied As things are the inhibition lies dimply against the uso of certain money to pay tor for prosecution of this kind tbt paragraph of ex emption in one ol 01 of f the antitrust anti trust laws actually will tho of any suits against labor unions and farmers far mera organizations for acts which I 1 oa on the part of other combinations would be criminal i borne of the democrats eem seem to 0 think that if their party shall in insist upon legislation ot of tho the kind outlined mr air wilson will veto it oven even if in to doing ho he must voto veto nil all of tho the anti trust which goes with it it the tho matter Is put up to the president ho he will bo be troubled to sign the bill containing it and bo be consistent with hia his utterance utterances of last march when ho he virtually rebuked bis his party for doing what it did through the medium of tho sundry civil uvil bill convention fight due shortly congress and the ranks of tho the militant cons of tho the united states will bo be arrayed against each other on tho the subject of control of the water power in tho the navigable streams Is undo uncle sam to have control over water power leases or lu la it to bo be vested hereafter la in tal tho ot of the individual the majority in congress congre isis believes in state states rights the couse conserva say lay that it tho the matter be turned over entirely to the states monopoly will rejoice and the public will be robbed in december thoro there was a national conservation congress held in washington it was supposed to be composed p of delegates devoted entirely to the plan to keep tho the command of water power altes sites in the hauda of 2 sam m however thero there were a rood many delegates present who it was charged were representatives of the water power people and who were present for the sole purpose of trying to thwart conservation under federal authority there wae was a hot controversy in the conservation congress but finally a resolution introduced by gifford pin chot pledging the congress to the principle that the people would draw a revenue from their heritages was put through by an almost unanimous voto vote it was evident that those who were vere opposed to the plan did not care to put themselves on record ae as voting against something which it put into effect seemingly will give the entire people a return for jhb power site alte rights which the government may grant water power lease bill thero there Is today before con congress grese a bill which Is intended to give to the individual states the right to lease water power sites altos on navigable streams within their borders uncle sam Is supposed to have control of navigable streams and therefore the conserva tion lats say that giving the states power to govern in the matter Is taking away from the federal govern government me nt a constitutional right and that the ree result alt will be state legislatures being moro easily reached than a it national legisla ture that monopoly will get got hold of the water nater power sites and the people will get no return for that which Is theirs within six months month the united states supreme court has handed down two decisions which prove as conclusively as supreme court decisions can that the united states has complete control of the power in navigable streams and that it can exact payment tor for its use one case came out of michigan and the other out of utah recently intimations have been printed that the president of the united states is in entire sympathy v with the democrats la ir A congress who want to give water power to corporations without payment to the whole people for its use the president Is a states rights man but it Is not believed he has expressed himself himsel as in favor ot of such a plan the pinchot men say the report almost unquestionably Is to belag spread in order to make the people of the country believe that a man in whom they have confidence thinks the scheme as outlined by the majority in congress is to righteous conservationists on guard the conservationists in washington aro are wakeful to the actuation they know everything that Is going on and it Is known that if it congress attempts to do what a subcommittee apparent apparently tj y intends that it shall do there will be another fight in the canter of a field as much interested onlookers 84 then the n were when ullen mr pinchot and his followers attacked mr ballinger aad aw his follow followers era the democrats say that they are progressive and are conservation ests tho the followers of the school of GI gifford afford pinchot deny that the democrats are telling the truth the conservationists say that to put water site matter in the hands of the states Is to throw away money and to make certain if it vater power legislation in the form in which th the majority in 11 congress seem to want to it Is 13 put through and signed by the president it is declared by the conservationists that one pledge in the democratic platform will have been shattered that monopoly will rejoice and that the people of the united states will have their pockets picked on the other hand the do democrats say that the states can be d depended upon to safeguard their own right rights and that there Is no reason why the federal government should enter into the confines of any one state to regulate the affairs of its people in the water power matter |
