Evening star., 1939-07-10

restraints II a DAVID Lawrence
for several years have held up a
construction boom.
If the Arnold plan of attack is
carried out impartially and without
regard to political or economic pres
sure groups it will mean that Amer
lea will have found in a system of
free competition the answer to the
debates on the 'isms" of Europe as
they relate to planned or con-
trolled economy.
There have been two schools of
thought in the last six years of
economic disturbance-those who
have felt that in centralized Gov
ernment more and more of the ac-
tivities of the business of America
should be controlled. and those who
have felt that by removing restraints
of trade involving fraud, dishonesty
and monopoly America could retain
her liberties and show the world
that the competitive system can
function.
But every time the antitrust
problem has been tackled, obstacles
have been placed in the path Of
those who favored strict enforce
ment. Thurman Arnold himself be-
came jealous about criminal indict-
ments as a means of securing re-
spect for the antitrust laws but the
complex economic life of the country
together with the lack of specific
knowledge on what the laws really
required made it unfair to use crimi-
nal punishment.
Provides Civil Penalties.
Now, instead, Mr.. Arnold is sup
porting the bill recently introduced
by Senator O'Mahoney of Wyoming
to provide severe civil penalties.
These, too, will act to some extent
as a deterrent, but there is much
more to be said for a policy of vigor-
Gus enforcement by the injunction
method of existing laws than for
the introduction of new penalties.
What is vital at the moment is that
the antitrust laws should be en-
forced and Mr.. Arnold significantly
revealed last week that for the first
time in history the antitrust divi-
sion of the Department of Justice
now had adequate staff and per-
sonnel to do the job.
Mr.. Arnold has made mistakes in
judgment in some Of his speeches
and In his policy of consent DEGREES
on the antitrust problem, but GER
tainly nobody in recent years has
stirred up more interest or revealed
himself as more genuinely desirous of
getting free competition going than
has the Assistant Attorney General.
In the hands of a man who believes
as sincerely in free competition as
does Thurman Arnold. there can
be no doubt that a start will be
made at last to enforce the law as
1t should have been enforced years
ago,
The building industry, moreover,
furnishes an excellent proving
ground 1t has in it more ramifica-
tions and more real impediments to
progress than any other industry
that has ever come before the De-
partment of Justice for investiga-
ton Mr. Arnold's sational state
nent outlining the malicious prac-
tices which prevent the people from
getting lower building costs may be
startling to the public. but it sum-
marizes what has been gossip in
governmental circles, Federal, State
and local. for generation.
Wonder at Delay.
When some building contractors
and some raw material makers get
together with labor unions to ex-
clude rival products, when city gov
ernments at the beheSt of unions
and contractors pass ordinances that
prevent the public from getting
good plumbing fixtures at low costs
and when all sorts of monopolies are
collusively undertaken in efforts to
gyp the public, then the wonder is
that the long arm of Government
has been so long in protecting the
people against these injustices.
The new attack may touch labor
as definitely, if not more SO, than
management, and the administra-
ton will be put to the test of
whether the labor vote here and
prosecutions.
There is another side to the pic
ture. These efforts to keep out COM
petitors and to hold up labor costs
have had behind them in most in
stances no real criminal purpose.
There are many persons in the build
ing industry as in other lines of
business who feel that they can use
political government, Federal, State
and local, to insure monopolistic
benefits. There are States where
auto dealers have combined to get
laws passed to keep out other dealers
or to require buyers of cars to pay
a heavy inspection tax if they pur-
chase autos outside the State.
State Tariff Barriers.
There are all kinds of tariff bar
riers within America camouf1aged
under inspection laws or tax laws.
All this proceeds from the theory Of
isolation" which has been preached
far and wide as well as from the doc
trine of protection in our tariff his
tory. While. however, there is JUS
tification for protecting home in
dustry against foreign competition,
there is logically no reason why the
power Of State or Federal Govern
ment should be used to favor one
geographical division of the United
States against another or the pro-
ducers of one State as against an
other.
The antitrust suit in the build
ing industry will run up against the
doctrine that unions and employers
IN self-protection ask for, and OBJ
tain, monopolies irrespective of the
effect on other groups of citizens.
Unfortunately for those who think
they need the monopoly, a system
OF free competition properly organ
lied will increase the volume OF
transactions and increase wages.
The idea of a guaranteed annual