Evening star., 1937-04-01
ANTITRUST LAW
REPEAL FEARED
Borah Voices Opinion in De-
bate on Guffey Soft
Coal Bill.
RY !. A. O'LEARY.

Fear that the Guffey soft coal con-
troll bill may lead to gradual repeal
of the Sherman trust law II the
code provisions and marketing agree
ments authorized in the measure are
exempted from the Sherman act was
voiced in the Senate today by Sena-
tor Borah Republican, of Idaho.
L have no objection to the descrlp-
ton of fair trade practices outlined IN
the code section of the BILL, said
Borah. What I object to is taking 1t
out from under the Sherman law.
Next will come the textile industry,
then the steel industry and we will
be operating under commissions, with
the Sherman law repealed"
Senators Barkley of Kentucky and
Minton of Indiana. Democrats, took
issue with Borah's Interpretation OF
the exemption clause. Mlnton said
1t does not repeal the Sherman law,
but broadens its scope.
Borah wanted to know why the ex-
emption is necessary If the code men,
bers are not expected to engage in
monopolistic practices. Barkley said
they not only are not expected to en-
gage in such practices, but are pro-
hibited from doing it,
Passage of the bill is expected late
today or tomorrow.
Commission Given Power.
The Senate voted yesterday to al
low the proposed Bituminous Coal
Commission to appoint some of its
personnel without regard to civil serv-
ice.
Senator White, Republican, OF
Maine protested against the civil serv-
ice exem ption feature but admitted
he had no hope of preventing it. The
House, ir passing the bill two weeks
ego, had excluded from civil service
the secretary, clerks to commissioners,
attorneys and such special agents,
technical experts and examiners as
the commission may require.
The Senate Interstate Commerce
Committee went step further and
also excluded from the civil service
requirement managers and employees
of the statistical bureaus hereinafter
provided for" Any employees hired by
the commission other than the groups
mentioned would have to be appointed
IN accordance with the civil service
and classification acts
White Hits Tendency.
'sThis is another instance where
We are permitting the employment OF
an unlimited number of persons by
the organization created by the bill
without any reference to the civil
service laws" the Senate was told by
White a member of the Civil Service
Committee.
The Senate adopted a series OF
committee amendments yesterday,
but left controversial ones for debate
today.
On motion of Majority Leader Rob-
inson, the House provision placing a
tax of one-half of i per cent on the
sale price at the mine was changed to
tax of one cent on each ton. This
placed the tax on the quantity instead
OF the price. This levy will defray the
cost Of administering the act.
Can Fix Maximum Price.
Acting through % district heads
throughout the country, the commits
sion would fix minimum prices. 1t
also would have power to fix maximum
prices whenever such action was
deemed necessary to protect the con-
gunner To make the regulatory fea-
lures effective, provision is made for
esta ahlishment of a marketing and
price-area code. In addition to the
small administrative tax, there would
be another tax Of 1914 per cent levied
on the coal of producers If they remain
out Of the code. Code members would
be exempt from this tax.