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![handle is hein.usccsset/usconset32473 and id is 1 raw text is:
56TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. REPORT
Mdd &sion. No. 2007.
MEANING OF THE WORD CONSPIRACY, ETC.
DECEMBER 3, 1900.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.
Mr. LITTLEFIELD, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted
the following
REPORT.
[To accompany H. R. 8917.]
The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred House bill
8917, report it back with a recommendation that the bill pass with two
amendments.
It is a bill to'define the meaning of the word conspiracy and to
regulate the use of restraining orders and injunctions. After specify-
ing what shall not be held to be a conspiracy, this independent propo-
sition appears in lines 5 and 6 on page 2 of the bill:
Nor shall such agreement, combination, or contract be considered as in restraint
. of trade or commerce.
The first amendment of the committee strikes out the language above
quoted. The only statute of the United States that prohibits contracts
and agreements in restraint of trade and commerce is the Sherman
antitrust act, approved July 2, 1890.
That statute makes such contracts and agreements criminal and
imposes upon the parties making them penalties of fine and imprison-
ment. It makes no discrimination between classes or individuals. In
its application it is not a respecter of persons. It does not select,
as it ought not, persons engaged in any particular business or occupa-
tion, as distinguished from other kinds of business or occupation, as
subject to its penalties. It operates equally and alike upon all. If
the results legislated against are properly the subject of criminal leg-
islation, all agencies through which such criminal results are produced
must be equally within the penal provisions of the act, as otherwise
the restraint of trade and commerce could not be effectually prevented.
If the result is injurious, all acts producing the result should be under
the ban of the statute.
It is certainly conceivable that acts may be done in contemplation
or furtherance of any trade dispute between employers'and employees
that would not be in restraint of trade or commerce, and it is
undoubtedly true that acts might be specially directed to or necessarily
involve the . restraint of trade or commerce' for the purpose of fur-](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.usccsset/usconset32473&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)