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keeping and power of the State and denied the General Government any responsi bility for or power over them. Rights like these do not arise from the Constitution of the United States, and are in no wise dependent upon it.

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The right or privilege here involved is not granted in terms to any citizen of the United States by any provision of the Constitution. Its exercise is not necessary to the enjoyment of any right or privilege which the Constitution does specify and confer. It does not result from relations of citizens of the United States to the Government of the United States, as needful or proper to the discharge of any duty the citizen owes it. Its protection is not essential to the supremacy of the General Government over any matter committed to it by the Constitution, nor is its enforcement a proper means to any end which the Constitution ordained the Government of the United States to accomplish. The right has not been assailed or invaded under any State law or by any State authority, or on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, or in any other way than by the acts of lawless individuals. How, then, can such an offense fall within the criminal jurisdiction of the courts of the United States?

The demurrer to the indictment was sustained.

I call your attention to that because one of the arguments made for the amendment here asked for was that this statute was the proper place to assert such rights; that they were constitutional rights, the rights of citizens to organize for the protection of their contract, and such rights ought to be asserted by the United States in a statute.

Mr. LITTLEFIELD. Ought that not to be taken with the qualification that this is an attempt to modify a Federal statute, and that quoad Federal legislation, those rights ought to be asserted so far as that jurisdiction is concerned?

Mr. DAVENPORT. If it is made broad enough to cover both, it is illegal as a whole; but it is legitimate to suggest in the process of amending a Federal statute that such remedies as they think they are entitled to have should be taken into account when we make the amendment. That is a legitimate subject for discussion. What weight should be given to that is another thing. The rights of labor is a matter to be taken into account in determining what sort of an amendment is to be recommended.

Mr. EMERY. I have nothing further to say on this subject, Mr. Chairman, except to say that finally, in addition to the arguments heretofore made against the bill, we finally urge that these later amendments have made the entire subject-matter so vague, so uncertain, so indefinite, so impossible of intelligent discussion, much less of intelligent application to particular sets of facts, that the obscurity and vagueness which clouds the entire bill, quite apart from any discussion of the substantial things suggested or contained therein, is so great as to make the bill unworthy of consideration as an amendment to a clear-cut, thoroughly interpreted, and effective law. Its effect would simply be to endanger a piece of legislation that has been on the statute books almost twenty years and has been interpreted by the courts of the United States very carefully, and we say therefore the committee should very carefully consider the protection of existing legislation of an important character against its amendment by obscure legislation the effect of which would be, for that reason if for no other, to endanger the legality of the entire existing law. I want to take occasion personally to thank the committee very much indeed for its patience and indulgence through a very long, difficult, and tiring hearing.

Mr. LITTLEFIELD. I want the notes to show that Mr. Schulter is representing the Antitrust League, appeared at the session of the

committee last evening and requested an opportunity to be heard, and that the chairman handed him his copy of the proposed amendment last evening so that he could familiarize himself with it and be prepared to be heard, and that at that time an adjournment was had until 2 o'clock this afternoon at the room of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Agriculture, when Mr. Schulter is was to be heard, and that the chairman of the committee has been in session in that room from 2 o'clock until 10 minutes of 5 and Mr. Schulteis has not appeared; and that under the circumstances, while the chairman would have been very glad to hear Mr. Schulteis's suggestions as to the pending legislation, the chairman does feel that the hearings ought to be closed, although Mr. Schulteis has not been heard.

(At 5 o'clock p. m. the subcommittee adjourned.)

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