its order is not obeyed, may appeal to the court to enforce its order. The findings of the Commission, if supported by testimony, are conThe court may affirm, modify, or set aside the

clusive in the court.

order of the Commission.

The Commission has the power: (a) to gather information about, and investigate the business of, those subject to this act; (b) to require special and annual reports of such corporations; (c) to investigate, and on request of the Attorney-General they must investigate, the way in which court decrees against the violation of the federal anti-trust laws are being carried out; (d) on the direction of the President or either House of Congress to investigate and report the facts as to any alleged violation of the anti-trust laws; (e) on application of the Attorney-General to investigate and recommend readjustments in the business of any corporation alleged to be violating those laws; (f) to make public such information, except trade secrets and names of customers, as it may deem expedient in the public interest, and to submit reports and recommendations for legislation to Congress; (g) to classify corporations and make rules to carry out this act; (h) to investigate trade conditions in and with foreign countries where combinations, practices, or other conditions may affect our foreign trade, and to report thereon to Congress with any recommendation.

Power is given the Commission to summon witnesses to testify, secure records, etc.

308. PROVISIONS OF THE CLAYTON ANTI-TRUST ACT (1914)1

The term "omnibus bill," frequently applied to the Clayton act, well indicates its character as covering a wide range of more or less related topics. For the sake of greater clearness concerning its significant features, only the chief provisions are stated here, though nothing but a detailed study of the phraseology of the act itself can give an accurate conception of its provisions.

In the main the act attempts to deal with two things: (1) it seeks to check certain undesirable practices found among industrial combinations, railroads, and banking institutions; (2) it seeks to give labor organizations greater freedom from prosecution under the antitrust laws and in proceedings connected with injunctions.

In connection with the first purpose the law forbids: (a) discriminations in prices between purchasers where the effect may be 'Taken by permission from a statement prepared by C. W. Wright.

substantially to lessen competition or create monopoly, though differences in price due to variations in quantity, quality, cost of selling, or transportation, etc., are permitted; (b) "tying clauses" where commodities, patented or unpatented, are leased or sold, or a price is fixed or discount or rebate given, on condition that the lessee or purchaser shall not use or deal in the goods of a competitor and where the effect of such an understanding is substantially to lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly in any line of commerce; (c) the holding of the stock of one corporation by another where the effect may be substantially to lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly (but this does not apply to the cases of certain subsidiaries, or to branch lines or extensions of railroads, or to stock purchases solely as an investment where there is no such tendency, or to such rights heretofore legally acquired); (d) after two years, any person serving as a director, officer, or employee of more than one bank where one of them is organized under the laws of the United States and either has deposits, capital, surplus, and undivided profits of over $5,000,000; or any person serving as an officer, director, or employee of more than one bank in any place of over 200,000 inhabitants where either bank is organized under the laws of the United States; or serving as a director in more than one concern engaged in commerce (other than banking institutions and common carriers) any one of which has capital, surplus, and undivided profits over $1,000,000 if such concerns are or have been competitors so that an elimination of their competition would constitute a violation of the anti-trust laws.

In the case of railroads, contracts or purchases of goods to the amount of over $50,000 in any one year from other concerns, when the president, manager, purchasing officer, or agent of the railroad is in any way interested in such concern, shall not be made except through free competitive bids under rules determined by the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Any person injured in his business by anything forbidden in the anti-trust laws can sue in the federal courts and recover treble damages. A violation of any of the penal provisions of the anti-trust laws by a corporation shall also be deemed a violation by the officers authorizing the act and deemed a misdemeanor subject to fine or imprisonment.

The prohibitions enumerated above are to be enforced, where applicable to common carriers, by the Interstate Commerce Commission; where applicable to banking institutions, by the Federal

Reserve Board; where applicable to concerns otherwise engaged in commerce, by the Federal Trade Commission. Whenever there is reason to believe that any of these prohibitions are being violated the respective board or commission shall serve a complaint on the offending person or concern and hold a hearing, and if it shall then appear that the law is being violated an order shall be issued, or, in case the order is not obeyed, the respective board or commission may appeal to the United States. Circuit Court of Appeals, which, upon a hearing, may affirm, modify, or set aside the order.

In the second group of provisions, which included those dealing with labor organizations and their practices, the law first declares that the labor of a human being is not a commodity or an article of commerce and that nothing in the anti-trust laws shall be construed to forbid the existence and operation of labor, agricultural, or horticultural organizations, or to restrain them from lawfully carrying out their objects, nor shall such organizations be construed to be illegal combinations under the anti-trust laws.

The law somewhat modifies the issue, and the method of issuing and enforcing injunctions in labor disputes, prohibiting their use unless necessary to prevent irreparable injury to property rights for which there is no adequate remedy at law. Also injunctions shall not be issued against striking and peaceful picketing or boycotting by peaceful and lawful means, and such acts shall not be held to be a violation of any law of the United States. In cases of contempt of court arising under this act the accused may demand a trial by jury, except in suits prosecuted by the United States or in cases of contempt in or near the presence of the court.

See also 59. Fair Dealing and Fair Price. 60. Control by Public Authorities.

174. Simple vs. Complex Industry.

175. Complex Industry Is Difficult to Regulate.

CHAPTER XI

IMPERSONAL RELATIONS

A. Problems at Issue

Of the many changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution and the forces, both intellectual and economic, connected with it, few have been more striking in their consequences than the spread of impersonal relations.

"It was easy for the individual to adapt his life to the simple personal environment of the Middle Ages. His judgment could be depended upon to make the decisions necessary to his own welfare and to that of those dependent upon him. There was no complicated scheme of prices to cloud and bewilder his choice. The industrial relations of the laborer and master were dictated by custom, and required no conscious choice. As a consequence laborers did not live a transitory life, here today and there tomorrow. They belonged to permanent communities and enjoyed a high degree of neighborhood life. Through this the perplexities which were still left in the simple environment were minimized by a set of conventions, religious, industrial, political, and social, which prescribed quite rigidly the life which the individual should live. They were in reality a group of conventional formulas, revealing the experience of generations of persons as to how things should be done. They were quite sufficient for such ordinary matters as fixing the standard of living, giving moral instruction to the young, inculcating in them habits of industry, and giving them technical training for the occupations into which they were to enter. With such community standards to guide his life the individual was not likely to go seriously astray in adapting his life and activities to his community environment. The permanent association with the people making up the community, with place, and with group, gave a further help in sense of the values of the community's past and of their future prospects and prevented actions from being based upon purely immediate considerations, as is so likely to be the case in an impersonal and pecuniary society. If these standards place a discount upon individual initiative and upon novelty, they at least per

mitted persons to rationalize their activities in terms of a system of personal relationships of which each was an inseparable part.

"In contrast to this simple agricultural system our impersonal organization of economic relations (if not of society) can best be described by the three adjectives, industrial, pecuniary, and urban. Although the characteristics described by these three words are quite inseparable, and each implies the existence of the other two, they denote somewhat different aspects of a common system."

I

We have already surveyed some of the many phases of our “industrial, pecuniary, and urban economic system." The survey of each phase revealed directly or indirectly manifestations of impersonality. Impersonal relations go hand in hand with our pecuniary organization of society; they are inherent in our market organization; they lurk in our specialization and interdependence; the new technology is impersonality itself; even the administration of human beings in modern industrialism has strong tendencies toward an impersonal basis; over and above all the magnitude of the operations of modern society has made for impersonality.

Oddly enough, this development of impersonal relations has not received the attention it deserves in our formal writings upon social and economic matters. Because of this fact, it is not attempted in this chapter to give a balanced treatment of the proportion between the part played by personal relations and the part played by impersonal relations in our society. The discussion of personal relations has been almost entirely omitted. This omission should not, however, leave any false impression concerning the importance of personal relations. Notwithstanding the great development of impersonal relations, there has been a steady growth in our estimate of the importance of individual human personality and a steady development of agencies designed to develop that personality. Personal relations have not passed and are not passing out of existence. They are merely functioning in a different environment.

It is to be hoped that our discussion of impersonal relations will leave in no one's mind a feeling that these impersonal relations are necessarily undesirable. Their desirability or undesirability depends upon the circumstances of the particular situation, upon the characteristics of the particular problem at issue. Even where their consequences show a tendency toward being undesirable, the case is not closed. The situation may be met by a development of new social

From an unpublished manuscript by W. H. Hamilton.