Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-07
D. S. TRUST POLICY
is HELD INDICATED
rostponement Of R. c. A.
/. T. & T. World Merger
Regarded as EpochaI.
BIZ FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

| BIZ FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
with law enforcement and law OBJ
sarvance proclaimed as major policies
OF the Hoover administration, Big
Business has signaled that II intends
watching Its step. Though II has
escaped general public notice, the ac-
ton OF the Radio Corporation OF Amer
lea and the International Telephone a
Telegraph Corporation In ppstpontng
! they're sure they can effect II within
the law, Is looked upon In Washington
as an epoch-making event.
| The projected consolidation would
create the greatest communication sys-
tenn In existence. It would link tele-
phone and telegraph lines, cables and
wireless into one vast, centrally-con-
trolled consolidation, girdling both
hemisphere
In former times the promoters Of
such combine would have taken their
courage in both hands and trusted to
luck In the courts, II by any chance the
validity Of the merger should later be
questioned. Things are not done that
way any more. The Radio Corporation
and International T. and T. magnates
announce. instead, that they have only
reached "a tentative accord to do cer-
tain things IS soon as they are assured
they can proceed strictly within the
| statutes.
The particular statutes In their case
| are colmprehended under the White
Law, restricting the extent TO which
consultations may take place among
! individuals or corporations engaged in
the field Of electrical communications.
Principle Recognized,
The White law may or may not be
changed by the next or some succeed
ing Congress. But Federal authorities
| say that Is secondary to the broader
| principle which the Radio and I. r. g.
T. authorities have so publicly and
unqualinedly recognized, viz, that cor
porations nowadays need TO look before
they leap. Under the late adrninistra-
| ton OF William J. Donovan, Assistant
Attorney General, in charge OF the anti
trust division at the Department of
Justice, the Government carried out
the policy of helping corporations to
operate In accordance with the Sher-
man law.
I'm administering the anti trust
| laws" said Mr. Donovan in his recent
| report to Congress, 1.-The Department of
Justice has sought to cooperate with
those DESTROYS Of conducting their bust
nesses In conformity with those laws.
Without abating the insistence that the
! statutes must be obeyed, 1t has vel
coined the opportunity to aid those en-
gagged IN interstate commerce to main
tain lawful conditions without resort TO
| litigation
The value OF this policy Of CO.
operation is reflected ~ in the prompt
| application Of the law to new business
experiments. CD in the frank revela-
ton by business units Of their condo
| lions ana their plans, CD In general
economic stability resulting from conf
| oence In rather than fear of govern
| ment, and "a In securing the fun
effect OF the public policy of this coun.
try rs expressed in the antitrust laws
with Q minimum cost to the Govern
msnt and TO the prospective defend
AS has been stated in previous re-
ports, 10 has been the aim of the de-
partment TO meet ct their inception
business projects involving possible
violations of the anti-trus1 law. 1t il
believed that this method ENSURES not
only more effective enforcement. but
BY anticipating and having determined
| the questions involved, enables industry
to be guided BY the decisions Of the
Supreme Court"
Expect Voluntary Move.
This writer understands that the
Radio-I international Corporations do not
at present plan directly to seek such
amendments to Che White law as would
permit prompt ratification of their mer-
ger. They seem confident that either
Congress or the Hoover administration
may move voluntarily in the direction
~ SAW al
Is that competitive conditions at the
time the white law was enacted 40
longer prevail. Americas principal
business rivals In various parts OF the
world have gone In for such extensive
mergers that tn eUnited States position
IN the field Of electrical communica-
tons is today radically altered.
1t is the British radio-cable merger,
now about to become operative, that Is
Of chief importance to this country.
Nothing short of q joining Of American
| forces, such as Is contemplated by the
| Radio Internationa deal, can, its pro-
motors assert, equip Uncle Sam to meet
the impending worldwide communica-
lions competition of John Bull.
Oil Curtailment.
| The oil industry, acting through the
american petroleum 1uSJlCuLe, BeSmS
| disposed TO challenge the Sherman anti
| trust law with respect to the right to
curtail production. The Attorney Gen.
eral of the United States has ruled that
such curtailment would run counter TO
the laws purposes because turning of
oil at the spigot" would restrain output
| and automatically tend to raise prices.
! Prevention Of arbitrary price fixing Is,
Of course, one Of the basic purposes OF
| the Sherman act.
II 3 not generally known that 3
couple of years ago, when the problem
of oil conservation was first preached,
the oil industry projected just some
such regulation program rs . now
| threatened. In cooperation with the
| Federal OIL Conservation Board. of
which Herbert Hoover was then q menu
Der, it was arranged to have the whole
proposition studied from purely legal
standpoint TO that end the operators
appointed three representatives; the
Federal Government named three
others, and still another three were
designated by the American Bar Asso-
| 4 Earl