the 1914 Clayton Anti-Trust Act was ratified to further the US government's stand against the corrupt and deplorable businesses of the Industrial Era. Its original purpose was to further the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890. However, it quickly overshadowed the Sherman Anti-Trust ACt as it 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. The act was in support of the struggling labor unions and agricultural workers, as they were - in a basic sense - exploitend by hierarchy's trade restraints and implications. To a further extent, the act restricted big business from having dictatorial control over the common man, and gave the worker the ability to legally strike, picket, and boycott. In this defense, Congress declared upon ratification that “the labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce.” Later amendments were passed in succession to maintain the act's strengthen, such as provisions against unfair price cutting (1936) and intercorporate stock holdings (1950).
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