Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-04-28
TRADE Commission
TO|SSUE REPORTS
Information Gathered by Cor
poration Bureau to Be
Made Public.
EXPORT AGENCIES ONE
OF SUBJECTS IN VIEW
Australian Boards Scope and Powers
Are to Be Discussed in
Paper Soon.

\ number Of reports are soon 10 he is
sued from the office of the federal trade
commission. based in large part on IN
formation compiled under the old bureau
of corporations and on data gathered by
Joseph e. Davies personally when he was
assisting committees Of Congress In pre-
pairing material on which the recently
passed antitrust legisla ton was based
OF these reports the farm machinery
trade report made public Monday was the
first There are five others. several OF
which are expected to be of permanent
value in connection with public discus
sions of trusts and trust lcglSla ton one
Of the reports is expected to he OF par
ticular value In connection with the dis
cusson now going on as to whether Amer
lean firms and corporations engaged in
export trade shall he permitted to com
bne in common selling agencies and by
other mea ms to obtain and hold trade with
foreign countries. as other manufacturers
and producers in countries like Germany
do.
The reports to come are the results of
the investigation Of the Healdton oil
fields, the tobacco industry, the state cor
pora tipn taxation laws about which there
have been serious complaints, as well as
compilation and digest of the corpora
ton laws OF all states, and compilation
and digest of trust laws and legislation
in various countries of the world.
Australian Trade Commission.
For instance Australia has an inter
state trade commission similar in some
ways to the federal trade commission
of the United States. The last-men-
toned report will analyze that com
missions powers and duties In addl-
ton. there will be an explanation OF
the laws on monopoly in New Zealand.
South Africa and all European coun-
tries. such as England, France, Ger
Ie.ll- at
Mr. Davies. who is now chairman of
the federal trade commission. was
working with the House and Senate
committees which prepared the anti
trust legislation recently passed by
Congress he wrote a number of briefs
and compiled mass of data on trust
laws of foreign countries which the
federal trade commission believes Will
be useful to the country Ii is being
made into. a report and will contain all
English and American decisions on the
subject of unfair practices and price
competitions.
a large number of complaints have
reached the federal trade commission
as to price discrimination and unfair
practices in the United States.
The commission believes that fully
half of these complaints can be ad
3usted informally. without the neces-
sity of hearings.
Work of Organization.
The work of the commission lately has
consisted solely Of administrative
details in connection with taking over
the old bureau of corporations. 1t has
been said that because the commission
has taken over the bureau of corpora
tions the work of organizing the COM
mission has been twice as difficult as it
would have been if it had been able to
start fresh on its own account, with
out taking the old bureau and its af-
fairs into consideration. Meetings are
constantly being held between the
heads OF division of the old bureau and
the members of the commission in an
effort to get things into running order
The commission has under considera-
tion the desira bility of holding hear
tngs on the possibility of foreign trade
combinations for the benefit of Ameri-
can producers, such as common selling
agencies. and may decide to have such
hearings in order to get suggested
plans of operation by American pro-
ducers.