The Age of Mergers I11 
It is also a clear case of building up of self- 
government.” 
Similarly, William E. Humphrey, Chairman of 
the Federal Trade Commission, has described a 
“new policy” of the commission by “codperation and 
stipulation,” which gives ‘“‘opportunity for an indus- 
try to do away with any fraudulent or unfair prac- 
tice” and “to regulate itself, to clean its own house, 
to make rules and regulations by common consent” 
—in short, to “achieve decency instead of having 
the government thrust decency upon it.” 
[t seems clear, therefore, that only when resort 
to codperation and self-government fails need the 
“laws with teeth in them” be invoked under Presi- 
dent Hoover. Moreover, many exceptions to the 
law against restraints of trade have already been 
sanctioned by Congress. In the Clayton Act it was 
intended to exempt labor unions from the operation 
of the anti-trust laws, but the Supreme Court in a 
recent decision has so interpreted the law as to de- 
stroy the exemption. The power to approve agree- 
ments in “reasonable restraint” of trade made be- 
tween competing American steamship owners fixing 
rates and allotting tonnage, was conferred by the 
Shipping Board Act. The Federal Reserve Act per- 
mits banks that compete in this country to co- 
operate in establishing banks abroad. The Webb 
Act allows vendors of American merchandise to 
combine in search of foreign trade. The Interstate 
Commerce Commission possesses large powers to fix 
railroad rates in order to prevent competitive rate-