The Washington times., 1924-08-07
COMP LE X
METHOD
IN USE
Department Agents Now Find
Conspiracy Evidence
Hard to Get
By WILLIAM HARD

BY WILLIAM HARD
The outstanding feature Of
Antitrust" developments under
the Harding Coolidge administra-
ton, so far as this lay writer can
Gee, is the amazing character and
amazing result of the decision Sc
cured from the United States Su-
preme Court in the so-called
hardwood case"
While many people are talking
as if nothing had been done against
monopoly" and conspiracy" the
Government has succeeded almost
in outrightly outlawing even the
mere exchange of statistical in
formation regarding costs and
prices between rival firms.
In order to understand this case,
the reader should first realize
that old-fashioned methods of
getting together and of brazenly
: agreeing on identical prices to be
charged by rival firms have be-
come genuinely old-fashioned and
are now looked at strongly ask
ance by almost all really big bust
ness.
Proof Hard To Find.
In the old DAYS a generation a1o.
the practitioners Of big business
used to make such agreements
, actually in writing. Afterwards they
used to do it verbally. Now the
utmost endeavors Of agents of the
: Federal Trade Commission and of
agents of the Department of Justice
usually fail to reveal any actual
proof of any outright specific price
fixing conspiracies, among business
firms of top rank and top size.
The allegations regarding such
conspiracies by Samuel Untermeyer
of New York were given the most
careful scrutiny by the authorities
IN Washington and were found to
be highly interesting as surmises,
but were also found to be almost
totally void of any proofs which
would be satisfactory to a judge or
jury. j..
j. This is why suits are not brought
against the steel companies or
against the oil companies on any
"price-fixing" charge. No convincing
proof of any such actual agreements
among them has been found.
"Price-fixing" among them IL
surmised. 1t Is suspected. Repre-.
sentatives Of Oil companies have
been accused of it in the course
of personal interviews in the De-
partment of Justice.
Representatives Of various numer-
Gus state governments have come
70 the Department Of Justice and
have charged the oil companies with
"price-fixing." They have been
asked for their proofs. They have
not been. able to deliver proofs.
Some Of them have now returned
to their states believing that they
can acquire proofs and come back
+ to the Department of Justice with
them. This is the case, this writer
has reason to believe, in the in
stance OF the State of Wisconsin.
If that State, or any other State,
can find proofs, which the Depart.
ment of Justice has not been able
to find there is no doubt that a
suit will be brought.
Discarded or Concealed.
The point now is, though, that
In the operations Of really big bust
ness, the old-fashioned methods and
devices of "price-fixing" have in
most cases either been discarded or
else concealed with in ingenious
/. ness which not the most hostile in
Quirer from Washington has yet
been able to pierce.
A sideproof Of the fact that the
old methods are, indeed, possibly
passing out is to be seen in the
new methods which were revealed
and condemned in the hardwood"
case.
That case was brought against
some SOB persons and corporations
engaged in the production and sale
of hardwood lumber. They were
accused Of conspiring to eliminate
competition among themselves by
the following device.
They compiled, and distributed