Evening star., 1935-02-20
THREAT TO TRADE
SEEN IN MEASURE.
Bill Passed by Senate Would
Give |. c. C. Power Over
All Business.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
Every lawyer and every doctor,
every professional service man, every
advertising agent and every advertiser,
in fact everybody in business in the
United States will be interested to
learn that little bill has just been
passed by the Senate which, If not
reconsidered and defeated, will when
passed by the House set up the Fed
eral Trade Commission as the super
vising tribunal which may supervise
the conduct of every single business,
whether Incorporated or not.
Just three or four words inserted
in the present Federal Trade CommiS-
sion act, and put there when an un-
suspecting Senate did not grasp. the
meaning of the amendment led to
the passage by an oral vote of bill
which would revolutionize the powers
of the Federal Trade Commission.
The new proposal would make un-
lawful, not only unfair competition"
which has always been in the law,
but would add all deceptive acts and
practices"
Brain Trusters Renew Fight.
Now what is deceptive act" and
why should a commission in Wash
ington have the power to decide it?
This query was asked by this cor
respondent just about nine months
ago, when the same bill was intro
duced at the request of the Federal
Trade Commission at the last session
of Congress. and the measure didn't
get to first base.
Now, however, the young brain
trusters at the Federal Trade Com
mission have renewed their fight. If
they get this bill through they will
not need a copeland food and drug
law, they will not need the securities
exchange law, and they will have
broad power, not only over corpora
tions, but over all persons.
Members of the Senate who adopted
the bill by an oral vote were assured
at the time that it was an innocent
measure which merely strengthened
the present law in some incidental re-
spects. Even Senator Wheeler OF
Montana, chairman of the Interstate
Commerce Committee, thought he was
Offering an amendment which merely
clarified the present statute. Nobody
took the trouble to make comparison
of the language added to the present
law and why it was sought.
Senator Austin of Vermont asked a
number of questions just after the bill
was passed and Senator Wheeler
promptly agreed to allow the measure
to be reconsidered. And that's what
its status is now.
Text of Measure.
Here is how the proposed law reads:
unfair methods Of competition in
or affecting commerce and unfair or
deceptive acts and practices in or af-
fecting commerce are declared un-
lawful.
THE commission is empowered and
directed to prevent persons, partner
ships or corporations, except banks
and common carriers subject to the
acts to regulate commerce, from using
unfair methods of competition in or
affecting commerce and unfair or de-
ceptive acts and practices in or af-
fecting commerce"
Now the new language added is the
phrase affecting commerce" and also
unfair and deceptive acts and prac-
tices In or affecting commerce"
There is nothing in the present law
about interstate or intrastate COM
merce, but the words Gin commerce"
are used, which means, of course,
interstate commerce, as the Feedral
Government has no constitutional
authority to regulate transactions in
side a State. The New Dealers, how
ever. have been trying to set up a
new constitutional doctrine, namely
that a transaction affecting COM
merce" somehow includes one with
In a State but which may be remotely
connected with something in inter-
state commerce.
Believe in Legislation First.
1t is not probable that the Su-
preme Court would sustain any such
stretch Of the Constitution, but the
New Deal lawyers believe in legislating
first and litigating afterward.
It Is also apparent that, while the
present law prohibits unfair competi-
tion by persons engaged in interstate
commerce, professional people could
hardly come within that category.
However, when deceptive acts in or
affecting commerce" are introduced
into the law. it makes persons as well
as corporations subject to a far
reaching Federal control of the every
day acts of a business or profession.
The Federal trade commission also
has broad powers of investigation and
1nquisition. Once deceptive acts" are
permitted to be one of the objects of
the law. the commission would have
the right to use its machinery of
inquiry to see whether there are any
deceptive acts being practiced.
Never before have such police DOW
ers been sought by a Federal agency,
and 1t is novel attempt to bring
under Federal control a vast number
OF businesses and professions which
happen not to have been encom-
passed In the other restrictive and
punitive measures already a part of
the ruling passion in Government
today.