Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-06-21

government Off
Gals have been saying that the anti.
trust laws need revision. The Roose.
welt administration recognized this
need concretely when over the protest.
OF men like Senator Borah of Idaho
the National Industrial Recovery Act
was passed in which suspension OF
the antitrust laws was permitted
Since that time Attorney General
Cummings in public addresses has
called attention to economic results
which seemed to imply collision in
making prices and argued that even
II these acts we're within the letter of
the law. the trend toward certain
price-f fixing evidences should be thor
oughly studied
The action of Congress in granting
the request for an anti-monopoly in
quiry was taken at the request Of the
President, but it Is also true that the
plan originated in the Department of
Justice. where the Attorney General,
buttressed by experiences with the
N. r. A., felt that some sort Of COM
prehensive survey should be made
before Congress undertook to revise
the existing statutes.
O'Mahoney Wants Facts.
Businessmen really ought to CO.
operate with the committee. The
chairman, Senator OMahoney of
Wyoming. is fair minded individual
who can be counted upon to keep the
inquiry out of the mud puddles. He
Is searcher after facts. Studies
IN connection with his bill to require
Federal licensing of corporations have
given him definite interest in the
subject of monopoly. The President
has been represented as leaning upon
occasion toward the licensing idea,
out 1t would appear that before a solu-
ton OF that kind can be intelligently
discussed more information is needed
concerning the complex character of
American industrial operations. Thus
1t Will be interesting to have the new
committee develop publicly just why
so many identical bids are given for
government contracts and why COM
petition has occasionally become re-
strained due to the desire of large and
small competitors to avoid price wars
that are costly, if not destructive.
The Sherman antitrust law is
nearly SO years old. It has had a
profound effect on American economic
evolution. Today the Nation is crop
ing Tor some kind of regulatory plan
which will eliminate the unfairness
and fraudulent ingredients which NAV
appear IN competitive devices and at
the same time avoid anything which
looks like a subsidy or artificial aid to
. weaker economic units. For there
are plenty Of ways Of granting a sub
sidy without actually using Govern
ment funds.
The antl-monopoly inquiry comes at
an opportune time. Its activities will
coincide with efforts at economic re-
adjustment in which Government &C.
ton itself is already playing a vital
part. Thus the fixing of minimum
wages and maximum hours, the estab-
lShment through collective bargain
ing OF fixed union scales, and the fix
Ing OF freight rates all tend to make
costs rather uniform in given instances
and to curtail gradually the margin
above cost within which there can
really be any competition. With Sc
many cost items fixed directly or in.
directly by government, the oppor-
tunities for struggle over a minor
percentage Of profit tend to cause
some competitors to keep out of each
others territory. far away from each
others customers.
Incentive Is Lacking.
What is lacking today is incentive
to competition. Here the subject OF
taxes, Federal, State and local, as well
as Government regulation. comes into
the problem. The anti-monopoly in
CURRY could be of constructive value II
1t surveyed all industrial operations
and particularly the effect of uniform
labor costs and uniform labor rule.
on the chances of one company pro-
viding incentives to its employees TO,
a higher quality and perhaps even
greater quantity of production so that
the economic shibboleth of the hour
bigger volume at lower prices-may b.
realized. It would be q heartenins
thing if the O'Mahoney committee
really penetrated the whole economic
system from a strictly factual side &c
: that the problems Of making the CAPT.
talistic or individualistic system work
would be revealed in clearer perspec.
tive than they are as q rule through
the attacks made by demagogues and
. politicians.
The businessmen of the country
will make a mistake if they assume q
hostile attitude toward the O'Mahoney
committee. Here is q chance for the
businessmen frankly and voluntarily
to tell their side of the story OF
American economic operations. Herr
Is the first real opportunity for them
to put the facts before an interested
pubic. And here, too, businessmen
will ind 1t possible to reveal what thu
disadvantages are Of Government
price-flxing. For the fixing Of trans
portation prices-a huge element II
distribution costs-has itself played
havoc with the economic system. Were
railroads permitted to engage in real
competition with each other and tc
meet the competition of other form,
Of transportation, there would be les!
Of chance for so many prices to b
1ixed with the freight rate as the only
differentiaf. The O'Mahoney com.
mittee has a chance to do a job al
useful to America as any of the many
famous commissions which have pre-.
coded the enactment Of major legisla.
ton. Copyright. 1881