Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-23
RY WILLIAM RUFUS SCOTT.

|
Success has crowned the fight of the
Department of Justice for a free mar
ket in uuinine in the United States.
Importers and dealers have signed de-
cree to cease from attempts TO control
prices and restrain competition IN TINS
country, although they are at liberty
to do as they please elsewhere unless
| some other government objects.
This victory in quinine, plus the VIC
| tory obtained in the rubber market,
means saving of many millions OF dol
| lars for American consumers and recalls
the long struggle the Department OF
| Commerce has made for reasonable
| trade conditions in those commodities
bought abroad by the United States In
| large quantities.
Besides quinine and rubber other
commodities that are or have been sub
| ject to foreign control Of monopolls-
| tic nature are camphor, coffee, iodine
nitrates potash, sisal, sugar, mercury
and Egyptian long staple cotton. The
| cotton is used especially in making
automobile tires. Called before COM
mittee of Congress early in 1926, Sec
retary of Commerce Hoover outlined
this situation and also mentioned silk
and from 20 to 80 other commodities
susceptible of foreign control.
! Large Quantities Seized.
Last March agents of the Department
| of Justice seized in New Yark City more
than five tons of quinine, besides a
| large store of cinchona bark from
which quinine is made, and instituted
an antitrust suit against certain I'M
porters, dealers and others, some OF
them foreigners Price-fixing at I'M
i ran ioVolc and Y110nnpO1iZiOC Wprc
charged. The consent decree just en-
tered marks a complete triumph for the
| Government In behalf of the American
consumer of quinine without going to
| trial.
when we witness prices suddenly
raised far above what even the spokes-
men of the controls have announced as
fair" Secretary Hoover told the con-
! gressional committee, "by an additional
amount which, at present prices tof
RUBBER, If continued would, for the in
crease above fair alone, cost our con-
sumerS annually from 100000 to
$800,000,00, depending upon the price
assumed, then we may we'll conclude
that either these controls possess that
| inherent quality of all monopOlies-
never to be content with reasonable
prices-or that spectators have seized
direction of them and driven prices
to unreasonable levels"
| While then talking primarily about
rubber, which late In 1925 had reached
the extraordinary price of $l.2l pound
In the spot market, Secretary Hoover
also discussed the quinine and other
controls OF raw products extensively
used in American industry and homes.
Since then the rubber control has
broken down so that rubber for several
months has been selling at 10 or 10
cents a pound. The United States
buys almost billion pounds of rubber
annually, mainly for automobile tires,
and American car owners now are
profiting by the cheaper and better
tires.
Economy Campaign Effective.
To break down the rubber control
Secretary Hoover advocated, and there
was put into effect, an economy cam
paign, a greater use of reclaimed rub
Der and the development of new
sources of supply. The Firestone plan
tation in Africa and the Ford project
in Brazil in a few years will exert q
decided influence on the world rubber
| market, besides other American rubber
enterprises in the Far East, including
the Philippines.
| There was no narrow, selfish drive
on foreign producers In the program.
On this point Secretary Hoover made 1t
plain in the following paragraph that
the United States wanted foreign pro-
ducers to earn a fair return. 1t was
the unreasonably high price of rubber,
etc, that stirred the Department OF
Commerce to action.
Our dominant desire has been to get
along with our neighbors without en-
gaging in the slightest friction. and We
would bear a great deal to avoid in
/ volving our Government in commercial
chickering's. Deeply sensible of the ne
cessity for good will as the foundation
of all world commerce, the Department
of Commerce has been extremely loath
to raise these questions and has done
SO only because 1t felt the weight of
responsibility which we as a Govern
ment must have to our citizens on the
one hand and to the future of whole
some world relations on the other"
Huge Sums for Imports.
An idea of the money involved in
some Of the leading commodities i'm
ported entirely, or In large part by
the United States is afforded in the
latest Department of Commerce Statis-
tics for the fiscal year ended last June
80. We paid $4,000 900 for raw silk,
$306, 100000 for crude rubber, $685.
100000 for coffee and 1924, 600, 900 for
sugar These four commodities took
81, 204. 600, 900 out of the United States,
principally to Japan for silk, British
Malaga and Dutch East Indies for rub
Der, Brazil for coffee and Cuba for