New-York tribune., 1922-03-13
Knitting Bills,
Lockwood Is
Told by Gibbs
tContinuod from pauo ono)

constructive and one of the most i'm
portant parts of the committees pro
gram. Personally, am opposed to
trying to regulate human affairs by
commissions. There has been too
much of that sort Of regulation of late
years. But this prejudice should not
blind us to the necessity of a given
proposal.
"This commission bill is a necessity
for the honest business man, and it is
the only effective way of supervising
these combinations that are exploiting
the people in every line of busines IS
activity.
License for Every Association
Briefly, the bill requires every trade
association of which competitors are
members to take out license. In or
der to obtain such a license it must
establish to the satisfaction Of the
superintendent of Banks that its pur-
poses are lawful. The bill places
every such association under the super
vision of the Supe rintendent of Banks.
Any corporation or officer of a corpora
ton may then safely become mem
ber 1t will be the duty OF the
the association thus licensed operates
strictly within the law and that it is
not made the medium for price fixing,
restriction of output, division of terri
tory between competitors, or other
illegal and unfair methods by which
extortcn is now practced upon the
public.
"A business man who joins or per-
sists in remaining a member of an
association that is not licensed will be
guilty of a misdemeanor. Complaint is
being constantly made by business men
that the antitrust laws are indefinite
and that there is no place for them to
90 to ascertain what they can and cam
not lawfully do. If this commission
bill becomes a law they will know they
can safely join a licensed association
for legitimate cooperation between
competitors and that they must not
join one that is unlicensed. That will
be boon to honest business and will
make it easy TO convict the others.
What Lockwood Board Lacks
prior to the advent of the Lockwood
committee, if it had not been for the
Federal Trade Commission, there would
have been no prosecutions by the Fed
eral government. They do the inves
tigating and bring the proofs to the
prosecutor. The Lockwood committee
has been dealing only with the com
binations connected with the building
business. 1t cannot continue to act
perpetually AS policeman. Even if it
could it has no jurisdiction over any
of the numberless combinations in the
responsible for the present high cost
OF IlVlDU SO lOnCy a thoco h
tions continue the cost Of living will
not go down. 1t is only because the
processes of the law have not been able
TO and never will be able to reach
these grave crimes that permanent
administrative body is necessary,
Until we have some such thing we
need expect no permanent relief. The
situation will grow worse and less
manageable all the time. 1t is already
we'll nigh beyond control. If the pco-
pie can be made to understand the
great relief that this measure will fur
nlsh, the demand for it's enactment will
be irresistible"
Protests Compulsory Investments
The annual report of Francis r. Stod-
dard, State superintendent of Insur-
ance, which will be submitted to the
Legislature tomorrow, takes issue with
the Lockwood committee in it's pro-
posal to compel the insurance com
panies Of the state to invest up to 40
per cent of their investable funds in
first mortgage bonds. In doing so, Mr..
Stoddard declares that the fire, casualty
and other risk insurance companies
should be prohibited from gambling in
stocks, as was shown to be the prac-
tioe of many of them by the Lockwood
committee.
In discussing the proposal to compel
all insurance companies to invest in
as the largest of the com
panies are doing, Superintendent Stod-
dard said:
"lf merely permissory legislatio is
enacted to allow mortgage investments
of life insurance funds in order to re-
lleve the housing situation, tn, smaller
should be eliminate from
the measure and the. utmost care taken
that the interest of oo;icyholders'
funds be fully protected and also be
guaranteed an adequate return"
Life insurance companies doing bust
ness in this state show, according to
the report, gain of about $4,000, ,0O0,-
300. This brings the total to about
$40 100000 900. Attention is also called
to the large development in casualty
and surety business. Their net pre-
MUM writings total about 1881, 100000.
An amendment to the insurance law
providing for group health and acci-
dent insurance also is urged. The
losses of fire and marine insurance
companies were heavy last year. The
fire insurance companies Offset their
losses somewhat by increased premium
income. Companies writing marine in
surance had no such equalization. Au-
tomobile losses were excessive and
the report says, financial en-
oarrass assment to several companies.
"The bail bond situation, which has
caused serious annoyance in New YORK
City, will be met by measures intro
luced in the Legislature to control the
abuses that have developed" the report