Evening star., 1941-05-03

AblOIllC 1CIl-
eral Jackson has David Lawrence.
issued a statement endeavoring to
clear up the difficulty but it only
serves to reveal the perils.
Thus, last January a committee of
steel men, who could not possibly
fulfill all the orders available and,
who endeavored to allocate the work
between them on the most practic-
able basis has now been told that
this is illegal. To get around the
difficulty, the Department of JUS
tice now says such ALLEGATION of Or
ders will be all right if Govern
ment official makes the request. The
department adds
Meetings CT the industry with
the Office of Production Manage
ment and the Office of Price Ad-
ministration or their representa-
tives are not illegal Industrial
committees may be formed at the
request of the Office of Production
Management or the Office of Price
Administration to work with repre-
sentativeS of such offices on prob
lens of defense. There will be moth
ing unlawful in the industry CO.
operation in the selection of its rep
resentatives or in selecting mem
bers of its committees or in the
activities of such committees pro-
vided they are kept within the scope
of this letter.
"All requests for action on the
part of any unit of an industry shall
be made to such by the Office of
Production Management or the
Office of Price Administration and
not by the Industry Committee.
That is to say, the function of de-
termining what steps should be
taken in the public interest should
in each case be exercised by the
public authority which may seek
the individual or collective advice
of the industry. But the deter
mination should not be made by the
industry itself or by its representa-
tves."
Oil Case Is Cited.
It Is obvious that in any industry
there must be a meeting of the
principal companies and de
termination, in order to arrive at
practicable formula for co-opera-
ton with the Government. The
Department of Justice evidently will
wink it's eye at such "determina-
ton" and will consider 1t merely
as recommendations" to the Gov
ernment.
Requests by the o. P M. and other
agencies of the Government for
action in the ALLEGATION of orders
Is to be made only after they have
been cleared through the Depart
ment of Justice. But, it is added
that If any changes in personnel
occur in the o. P. M. or in the
Office of Price Conrtol or "if SER
ious practical difficulties arise" the
routine approval of subsequent or
ders will be revoked.
Then, finally, the Attorney Gen
eral caps the climax by declaring:
I'm the case of all plans or pro-
eedure, however, the department
reserves complete freedom to inSti-
continuing of acts or practices found
not to be in the public interest and
persisted in after notice to deSiSt."
1t will be recalled that a few
years ago the Secretary of the In
terror, acting through petroleum
administrator, indicated to the oil
men that they might get together to
col +oi1 90
the market. They were nevertheless
indicted by the Department of
Justice later on and their plea that
they acted at the Governments re-
quest was ignored. Today certain
oil executives stand convicted of
violating the criminal provisions
of the antitrust laws because they
thought they were observing Gov
eminent officials request.
The simple and direct way to
handle the problem, of course, is
either to suspend the antitrust laws
for the duration of the emergency
or to authorize price fixing and price
ALLEGATION by defense agencies and
to make such action not in any way
dependent on the whim of Gov
eminent officials.
No Real Immunity.
The present method makes it pos
sible for any one of a number of
subordinate defense officials to
break down the cooperation that
should go on between the Govern
ment and industry. For there is
no real immunity from prosecution.
At any time letters sent to the Gov
ernment or memoranda of the indus
try committees can be used as evi-
dence of collusion. This is particu-
lerly possible in the event that Gov
eminent bureaucratS and industry
executives ever disagree hereafter
on the details of major policies.
Unfortunately, the President, who
is responsible for the smooth opera
tion of Government policies, does
not care evidently to trust these
matters only to the Office of Pro-
da4ction Management, which has the
zeal task of getting maximum eff
eaercy in the shortest possible time,
but he has spread the matter over
into the Office of price control which
Ia controlled by executives who are
not experienced in industrial pro-
dtaction and who are interested In