at nearly everyone wanted to outlaw monopolies and create competition"; however, everyone also knew that the Act left many future considerations to be pondered. In this way, the Act served as the first piece of legislation but, it was to be the first step in a long series of steps to regulate competition.The Clayton Antitrust Act was passed in 1914 by the U.S. Congress as an amendment to clarify and supplement the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The act prohibited exclusive sales contracts, local price cutting to freeze out competitors, rebates, interlocking directorates in corporations capitalized at $1 million or more in the same field of business, and intercorporate stock holdings. Labor unions and agricultural cooperatives were excluded from the forbidden combinations in the restraint of trade. The act restricted the use of the injunction against labor, and it legalized peaceful strikes, picketing, and boycotts. It declared that the labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce. The Clayton Antitrust Act was the basis for a great many important and much-publicized suits against large corporations. Later amendments to the act strengthened its provisions against unfair price cutting (1936) and intercorporate stock holdings (1950).The Federal Trade Commission, or FTC is an independent agency of the U.S. government established in 1915 and charged with keeping American business competition free and fair. The FTC has no jurisdiction over banks and common carriers, which are under the supervision of other governmental agencies. It has five members, not more than three of whom may be members of the same political party, appointed by the President, with the consent of the Senate, for seven-year terms. The act was part of the program of President Wilson to check the growth of monopoly and preserve competition as an effective regulator of business.The duties of the FTC are, in general, to promote fair competition through the ...
