ANTITRUST LEGISLATION SPEECHES OF HON. PERCY E. QUIN OF MISSISSIPPI IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 1 AND 2, 1914 WASHINGTON SPEECHES OF HON. PERCY E. QUIN. IN FAVOR OF EXEMPTION OF LABOR AND FARMERS' UNIONS. June 1, 1914. 66 Mr. QUIN. Mr. Chairman, I understand they are about to slip a little amendment in here that the courts and the country can easily handle. Now, I want to put something in that has guts in it. This amendment talks about the courts construing" and "holding." My friend from Texas talks about what Gen. George did. I have the honor to come from the same State that James G. George came from. If Senator George were here, he would be an advocate for this amendment. He was recognized as one of the greatest lawyers in the whole Union, and if he were living to-day he would throw up his hands in holy horror at the forward steps taken by the Federal courts of this country. In his day, gentlemen, the courts did not undertake to legislate away the rights of the people; but now it has come to the point that the people can not get their rights except through Congress, and when we come here some Members want to put a little easy stuff in that the courts can construe against the farmers' unions and the labor unions. Let us put language in here that they can not misconstrue; let us put in language that nothing in this antitrust law shall apply to farmers' unions and labor unions. We know that these organizations and farmers' unions are not any criminal trasts. The great trusts and monopolies of this country that with greedy hands grind profits out of human blood want such measly language as you are proposing to put into this antitrust law. They do not want the strong, virile language, the Anglo-Saxon words that every schoolboy, much less a Supreme Court judge, will understand; and for that reason I hope that the House will adopt the Thomas amendment into this antitrust law. [Applause.] The great and powerful influence of monopolistic corporations has been growing and overriding the United States Congress and the courts. Many on this floor claim that the Sherman law is good enough. If that law is good enough, I ask in the name of the people why it is that ever since this law has been on the statute books the trusts and monopolies have organized, grown, multiplied, and prospered to such an extent that the people have been robbed and the courts of the country openly defied? If the Sherman antitrust law is good enough, there is something radically wrong with the Federal courts and the Federal district attorneys. I am induced to believe that there is something the matter with both. The Republican Party never did want to enforce the law against big money. Virtually all of the Federal judges and the United States district attorneys are the appointees of the Republican Presidents. Some of them try to enforce all the law. Where these district judges and attorneys endeavored to put the big criminals, the head men in these gigantic trusts, behind the bars, these conscientious officials have been handicapped in every possible manner. Many judges have endeavored to enforce the Sherman antitrust law, but have you heard of one of these trust nabobs being sent to the penitentiary? The only effective way that it has been enforced is against the poor people. It has never yet hurt a rich man. The poor men who compose farmers' unions and labor unions have felt the heavy hand of the Sherman antitrust law. My friend from Texas [Mr. HENRY] says Senator George never thought the law would apply to such beneficent organizations. The whole record shows that the great lawyers of that Congress never dreamed of such an outrage as the Sherman antitrust law being construed by the courts so as to affect the farmers and labor organizations of this country. The only way on earth to keep the eagle eye of the Federal courts off the farmers' unions and the labor unions is to make this antitrust law so plain that they are not included in its scope that any child in the United States can understand it. If there is the slightest ambiguity in the language, you will hear of some Federal judge in "Possum Hollow" announcing a decision that the farmers' union is a trust in restraint of trade and that the individual members are subject to indictment if by concert of action they hold their cotton or other farm products for a higher price. I am going to vote for the Webb amendment, and on top of that I shall support the Thomas amendment. The Webb amendment leaves too much for the courts to construe; but if you will follow it up by adopting the Thomas amendment, we all know the farmers' unions and the labor organizations will be in the "clear" for all time. The great capitalists of the United States have been busy for many years organizing powerful trusts, and, as an incident to their business, they have oppressed labor, destroyed honest competitors, robbed and plundered the people. Their activities have not been confined to any special lines, but these financial freebooters have operated in every nook and corner of every field of all commerce. Every household necessity is now under the control of some trust. They did not even think enough of the poor to let meat remain free from their greedy, monopolistic hands. Can any man in this House think of an organization of thieves equal to that gigantic aggregation of capitalists who form the Beef Trust? Why is it that none of these men are wearing stripes in the penitentiary? It is either the fault of the law or it is the fault of the Federal judges and district attorneys where they operate. I believe this bill we are passing now will be so plain that no judge can construe it so as to release the trust magnates. The public-service corporations in many instances have been operated in a high-handed way by trust officials. Right now you have under your observation in the Department of Justice an investigation of one of the biggest railroad "steals" that ever disgraced this country. I refer to the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad episode. The ex-president of that system, Mr. Mellen, under oath, admits that Mr. Morgan and other capi |