During 1914 the anti-trust bill introduced in the House by Clayton of
Alabama was going through the regular stages preliminary to enactment
and, although it finally failed to embody all the sweeping changes
demanded by the Federation's lobbyists, it was pronounced at the time
satisfactory to labor. The Clayton Act starts with the declaration that
"The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce"
and specifies that labor organizations shall not be construed as illegal
combinations or conspiracies in restraint of trade under Federal
anti-trust laws. It further proceeds to prescribe the procedure in
connection with the issuance of injunctions in labor disputes as, for
instance, limiting the time of effectiveness of temporary injunctions,
making notice obligatory to persons about to be permanently enjoined,
and somewhat limiting the power of the courts in contempt proceedings.
The most vital section of the Act relating to labor disputes is Section
20, which says "that no such restraining order or injunction shall
prohibit any person or persons, whether singly or in concert, from
terminating any relation of employment, or from ceasing to perform any
work or labor or from recommending, advising, or persuading others by
peaceful means so to do; or from attending at any place where any such
person or persons may lawfully be, for the purpose of peacefully
persuading any person to work or to abstain from working, or from
recommending, advising, or persuading others by peaceful and lawful
means so to do; or from paying or giving to, or withholding from, any
person employed in such dispute, any strike benefits or other moneys or
things of value; or from peacefully assembling in a lawful manner, or
for lawful purposes, or from doing any act or things which might
lawfully be done in the absence of such dispute by any party thereto;
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 government was also rendering aid to organized labor in another,
though probably little intended, form, namely through the public
hearings conducted by the United States Commission on Industrial
Relations. This Commission had been authorized by Congress in 1912 to
investigate labor unrest after a bomb explosion in the _Los Angeles
Times_ Building, which was set off at the order of some of the national
officers of the structural iron workers' union, inciden