Anti-trust Legislation.-The tariff and currency laws were followed by three significant measures relative to trusts.Rejecting utterly the Progressive doctrine of government regulation,President Wilson announced that it was the purpose of the Democrats "to destroy monopoly and maintain competition as the only effective instrument of business liberty."The first step in this direction,the Clayton Anti-trust Act,carried into great detail the Sherman law of 1890forbidding and penalizing combinations in restraint of interstate and foreign trade.In every line it revealed a determined effort to tear apart the great trusts and to put all business on a competitive basis.Its terms were reinforced in the same year by a law creating a Federal Trade Commission empowered to inquire into the methods of corporations and lodge complaints against concerns "us-ing any unfair method of competition."In only one respect was the severity of the Democratic policy relaxed.An act of 1918provided that the Sherman law should not apply to companies engaged in export trade,the purpose being to encourage large corporations to enter foreign commerce.
The effect of this whole body of anti-trust legislation,in spite of much labor on it,remained problematical.Very few combinations were dissolved as a result of it.Startling investigations were made into alleged abuses on the part of trusts;but it could hardly be said that huge business concerns had lost any of their predominance in American industry.
Labor Legislation.-By no mere coincidence,the Clayton Anti-trust law of 1914made many concessions to organized labor.It declared that "the labor of a human being is not a commodity or an article of commerce,"and it exempted unions from prosecution as "combinations in restraint of trade."It likewise de-fined and limited the uses which the federal courts might make of injunctions in labor disputes and guaranteed trial by jury to those guilty of disobedience （seep.581）.
The Clayton law was followed the next year by the Seamen's Act givinggreater liberty of contract to American sailors and requiring an improvement of living conditions on shipboard.This was such a drastic law that shipowners declared themselves unable to meet foreign competition under its terms,owing to the low labor standards of other countries.
Still more extraordinary than the Seamen's Act was the Adamson law of 1916fixing a standard eight-hour work-day for trainmen on railroads-a measure wrung from Congress under a threat of a great strike by the four Railway Brotherhoods.This act,viewed by union leaders as a triumph,called forth a bitter denunciation of "trade union domination,"but it was easier to criticize than to find another solution of the problem.
Three other laws enacted during President Wilson's administration were popular in the labor world.One of them provided compensation for federal employees injured in the discharge of their duties.Another prohibited the labor of children under a certain age in the industries of the nation.A third prescribed for coal miners in Alaska an eight-hour day and modern safeguards for life and health.There were positive proofs that organized labor had obtained a large share of power in the councils of the country.
Federal and State Relations.-If the interference of the government with business and labor represented a departure from the old idea of "the less gov-ernment the better,"what can be said of a large body of laws affecting the rights of states?The prohibition of child labor everywhere was one indication of the new tendency.Mr.Wilson had once declared such legislation unconstitutional;the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional;but Congress,undaunted,car-ried it into effect under the guise of a tax on goods made by children below the age limit.There were other indications of the drift.Large sums of money were appropriated by Congress in 1916to assist the states in building and maintain-ing highways.The same year the Farm Loan Act projected the federal govern-ment into the sphere of local money lending.In 1917millions of dollars were granted to states in aid of vocational education,incidentally imposing uniform standards throughout the country.Evidently the government was no longer limited to the duties of the policeman.
The Prohibition Amendment.-A still more significant form of interven-tion in state affairs was the passage,in December,1917,of an amendment to the federal Constitution establishing national prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors as beverages.This was the climax of a historical movement extending over half a century.In 1872,a National Prohibition party,launched three years before,nominated its first presidential candidate and in-augurated a campaign of agitation.Though its vote was never large,the cause for which it stood found increasing favor among the people.State after state bypopular referendum abolished the liquor traffic within its borders.By 1917at least thirty-two of the forty-eight were "dry."When the federal amendment was submitted for approval,the ratification was surprisingly swift.In a little more than a year,namely,on January 16,1919,it was proclaimed.Twelve months later the amendment went into effect.