Evening star., 1938-03-29
JACKSON GREETS
UTILITY DECISION
Reveals Financial Power
Must Operate Under
Law He Says.

holding validity of registration pro-
visions Of the 1885 Public Utility Hold
ing Company Act was hailed last night
by Acting Attorney General Robert H.
jackson as evidence that even great
aggregations Of financial power must
be made to operate under the law"
Chief Justice Hughes delivered the
opinion, with Justice McReynolds dis
senting. Justices Reed and Cardozo
did not participate.
Shortly after the decision had been
announced the Securities and Ex-
change Commission invited the pri-
vate utilities to cooperate in a pro-
gram Of voluntary simpliflcation Of
their holding company structures.
This attitude by the commission was
considered in line with recent White
House conferences on means of en-
couraging construction by the utility
industry.
S. E. c. officials have estimated that
the utilities are spending more than
$1,000, 100000 less annually on con-
struction than they have in the past.
Utilities leaders have explained that
fears Of regulation and governmental
competition have retarded their pro-
grams.
"Companies Under Government"
Commenting on the courts decision.
Mr.. Jackson said "its substance is that
the utility holding companies are under
the Government instead Of over the
Government and must register and
disclose their financial obligations"
The act gives the S. E. C. authority
to force simplification and integra-
ton. but in commenting on the courts
decision, the commission said:
Section II of the act has as its
objectives the limitation of holding
companies to integrated systems and
the simplification of the corporate
structures of such systems.
Will Continue to Cooperate.
"The commission conceives it to be
its duty under the act to allow the in
dustry reasonable time in which to
effectuate such voluntary plans, and
the commission will continue to CO.
operate in every reasonable way with
the efforts of the industry to bring
itself within the terms and spirit of
the act. = =
THE future under this act is a
challenge both to the quality of our ad-
ministration and to the quality Of the
industry's leadership"
Three large holding company sys-
TENS registered with the commission
shortly after the high court ruled
They were United Corp, the Common
wealth e. Southern and the United
Telephone & Electric Corp. Of Will
mington, Del.
Commonwealth & Southern is the
large Southern system which has been
in frequent conflict with the Tennes-
see Valley Authority.
ANnVsAh6 ASuAAhB ASCus
In another decision the Supreme
Court reversed ruling of the local
District Court granting an injunction
to restrain picketing of Sanitary Gro
cery Stores by members Of the New
Negro Alliance.
Pickets were placed around one of
the company's stores at 1896 Eleventh
street NV, in an effort to compel the
employment of colored clerks. The
trial court, with the approval Of the
Court of Appeals, granted an injunc-
ton on the theory the controversy in
volved a racial rather than a labor
dispute. The Supreme Court said this
was an erroneous Interpretation of the
Norris-La Guardia Act forbidding
issuance of injunctions by Federal
courts to prevent peaceful picketing
In labor disputes.
The justices also refused to review
the conviction of Thomas Jordon, who
is under sentence of death for the
murder of Mrs. Lizzie S. Jaynes in the
Garden-T-Shoppe hold-up.
Labor Act Held Applicable.
Another ruling held the National
Labor Relations Act applicable to the
Santa Cruz Fruit Packing Co. of Oak
land, Calf, which ships less than 40
per cent of its product in interstate
commerce.
The court also decided an ordinance
OF Griffin, Ga, requiring persons dis
tributing circulars or advertisements
to obtain license from the city man.
ager was invalid on its face" and
violative Of constitutional guarantees
of freedom of the press. The court
said freedom Of the press is not neces-
sarily confined to newspapers and
periodicals, but necessarily embraces
pamphlets and leaflets.