New Britain herald., 1925-10-10
ADMINISTRATORS DUTY
 TO GIFT pIfSS

me feOfbpnlEtu FCuefal llhde Commission with its reorganized rules aiming 10 prevent undue pub licity, is coming under fire since the announcement was made Of q s400, 100000 baking combine. II Is discovered that a complaint was filed against the old Continental Baking company last April, but In accordance with the new rules. no publicity was given 10 the com paint. The theory In back of the y>A publicity rulo is that company complained against should first be given an opportunity to reply 10 the complaint before 1t is male public This is fair in theory. al- though it Is treating corporations differently than individuals arc treated when they are charged with crimes or misdemeanors.
 Basking under the no-puDlicily rule, the Continental Baking com pany apparently merely made a formal request for a hearing be- fore the board of review of the commission. And that was all that happened. The only publicity the public got about the baking busi- ness was when the merger plan of the General Baking company was announced. The merger includes Continental.
 It is right and proper that At- torney General Sargent is disposed to take notice of the baking mer- ger and Inquire into 1t with view 10 determining whether 1t tran scends the antitrust law. So long as the law is on the books 1t ought to be enforced; of late years it docs not seem 10 have been regarded as a very desirable law, and prosecu- tions such as were common during the Taft administration have been virtually unknown, and such as were questioned passed safely into realization, as was the case in the recent packing house merger.
 Of course, housewives have a weapon against any baking trust right in their own homes; they can revert 10 the practices of a gen eration ago and bake their own bread. Unfortunately. however, if resentment became so general as , so induce goodly proportion of ! housewives to return to their own baking a large number of inde- pendent bakers, who are innocent Of taking part in trustifying aCtivi- ties would be among the sufferers, and they would be in less of posi- ton to bear the brunt than the big fellows.
 A political tWinge is given 10 the Federal Trade Commission dis closures by the fact that Huston Thompson and John r. Nugcnt, Democratic members, made the disclosure regarding the complaint | filed but not acted upon. It was they, who upon learning of the | s400, ,000,0o0 merger, regarded it as their duly to indulge in some un- official publicity about the pigeon holed complaint. The Coolidge ad- lnlnistration cannot afford to per init occurrences that tend to further the claim already bruited about by the Democrats that 1t Is q big business administration, and no time should be lost in sitting the flour and kneading the dough In the baking combination.
 Another little business affair that the Coolidge administration and Attorney General Sargent could very well get busy about, has to do with the aluminium trust It was year ago that charges made by the Democrats were calico merely rolitical;" but only a few days ago similar charges were made regarding the aluminium trust Secretary Mellon is chief owner 0 this trust but that fact should no in the least stay the hands of th' administration. If the Hluminun concern is exercising unfair prac tices, as is charged, it is the dut, of the administration to attempt t put a stop to it, irrespective of MT Melons connection with the con cern,