Evening star., 1937-11-29
'ROUT MONOPOLY
CUMMINGS PLEADS
1t Threatens Standards of
Our Life and Most of Re-
forms, He Says.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Nov. 29.-Attorney
General Homer S. Cummings called
on the Nation today to destroy
monopoly" even as President Roose-
welt, off on a Florida fishing vaca-
ton, consulted with aides on new anti
trust legislation.
Unless we destroy monopoly" Mr..
Cummings said, monopoly will de-
stroy most of our reforms, and, in the
end, lower the standards of our COM
mon life"
The administrators expected at
tack on monopolistic practices is still
in the formative stage, Mr.. Cum
mings' assistant, Robert H. Jackson,
said in the South after talking with
President Roosevelt. Mr.. Jackson,
who Is in charge of antitrust prosecu-
tions, boarded the yacht Potomac with
the President, carrying with him data
on antitrust prosecutions and studies
the Department Of Justice has been
making in preparation for suggested
new legislation to improve enforce
ment of the Sherman and Clayton
acts.
Quarry in Underbrush.
Mr.. Cummings, likened prosecution
under the present laws to searching
out "a quarry in the tangled under
brush OF an almost impenetrable for
est" His remarks were in an address
prepared for delivery before the Asso-
ciated Grocery Manufacturers OF
America, Inc.
He said comprehensive hearings and
studies. leading to clarification, re-
statement and rigid enforcement of
the antitrust laws, were needed.
Unless the problem of monopoly is
met, he said. it may get beyond con-
troll and lead to remedies of a char
acter that few really desire"
The antitrust laws, he said, need
to be adapted to our modern problems
more realistically and intelligently,
and they need behind them the drive
OF adequately financed enforcement
machinery" He continued:
DO not for moment imagine that
this Is solely the Government busi-
ness. 1t is the problem of all our
people, and that includes every ele-
ment of American life. ..
In this welter OF things, nothing
is more obvious than the fact that big
business, if l may use that term, is
moving blindly but with accumulating
acceleration down the road leading to
ultimate Government supervision. = = =
The American people have a deep
and abiding faith in democratic
processes. They have seen the stop
ok-and-listen signal passed all toe
often; but while their patience en-
dures every possible effort should be
made to solve the problem within the
terms of our political and economic
ideals. Personally, I adhere to the
faith that these difficult matters can
be dealt with within the framework
OF our customary processes"
Mr.. Cummings began by assuming
that with the objectives of the anti
trust laws few responsible persons
have any serious quarrel" But the
existing laws have failed of their
major objective" he said.
Unmistakable Trend.
They may have checked the growth
OF monopoly, but they have not pre-.
vented it," he said, continuing:
The trend toward an undue con.
centration of wealth and economic
control is unmistakable. It is esti-
mated that in 1929, 200 non- financial
corporations controlled 49.2 per cent
OF the assets of all such corporations
In 1888 the percentage had increased
to 56. Reports from the Bureau oi
Internal Revenue for 1898 indicate
that nearly one-third of all the prop.
erty passing by death was found ir
less than per cent of the estates
The studies made by the Brooklngs
Institution in its 1929 report indi.
cate that 100000 families had in.
comes of less than $1,000 annually
and that $4,000 families in the high
income brackets received as much oi
our national income as 1900, ,00C
families with the lowest incomes"
Cummings went on:
III this Is wnaL democracy comes
to, then We must amend our ways OF
confess judgment in the face Of the
world
Cites Identical Bids,
He recited a number of instances
OF many identical bids having beer
received for Government contracts
pointing out that it was difficult tc
determine whether these were illegal