ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by anti-trust acts,

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the silent killer of healthy families.

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All right, give this excerpt a look-see.

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[ mumbles ]

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[ mumbling continues ] All right, and the question:

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The Clayton Anti-Trust Act marked a new

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period in American labor relations because it... what?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right. What exactly was the Clayton Anti-Trust Act?

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Well, we see in the excerpt that "the labor of a human being is

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not a commodity or an article of commerce."

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And that labor organizations should not be considered

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"illegal combinations or conspiracies

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in restraint of trade."

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So, basically, people aren't the same as corporations

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and should be able to organize

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and collaborate with one another.

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Hmm. My, how times have changed.

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Let's see which answer best describes this law's impact.

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Well, did the Clayton Anti-Trust Act mark

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a new period in labor relations because it

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B - mandated that corporations negotiate with workers annually?

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Well, actually the bill only created the framework for

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employers and employees to interact. It said nothing

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specific about the negotiations themselves. So it's not B.

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Was the change in labor relations that the Act

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C - forbade companies from hiring children under 16?

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Well, reformers did eventually pass child labor legislation,

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but it wasn't a part of this particular law. So that knocks out C, too.

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Could the shift in labor policies have been that the law

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D - prohibited mergers and acquistions for major corporations?

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Well, the Clayton Anti-Trust Act did, in fact, prohibit mergers

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that would lead to a company having a monopoly,

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but it didn't prohibit mergers of all kinds.

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Sorry, rich Uncle Pennybags. So it can't be D, either.

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That means that the Clayton Anti-Trust Act marked a new

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period in labor relations because it A - clarified that laws

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against cartels did not apply to trade unions.

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In the Sherman Act of 1890, the courts decided that

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the trade unions were a kind of cartel, meaning

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that they worked together at the expense of customers.

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Because of this constraint, workers had almost

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no bargaining power against their employers.

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The Clayton Anti-Trust Act clarified that unions, in fact,

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were not cartels, paving the way for more organized labor.

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So A is the right answer. But remember,

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collective bargaining might not always be the bargain you hoped for.

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[ baby laughs ]

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