Greenbelt cooperator., 1942-04-03
FOOTNOTING
the HEADLINES
Oith John Consumer
SHOWDOWN ON FAIR AND
UNFAIR PRICE FIXING


of the Department Of Justice has
forced a showdown on so-called
fair and unfair trade laws" in
force IN many states.
The idea of forbidding sales
below cost plus a fixed mark-up
(unfair trade law and permitting
these fixing of retail prices by the
manufacturers (so-called fair
trade practice) originated in Cal
ifornia.
And it is in California that
Trust-Buster Arnold has cracked
down-On 5000 retail stores in
Guiding three big chains in the
northern part of the state. The
courts have upheld the price-fxing
laws, but a Federal Grand Jury,
after hearing evidence of the De-
Partment of Justice, decided that
the stores were going too far.
The government charged that
the stores used price lists and bull
etins containing high, artificial and
non-competitive prices upon which
the stores had agreed. And that.
says the Department of Justice, is
a conspiracy in restraint of trade.
ONE-SIDED NEWS
The press is still free from gov
erment censorship in this country,
except for military information,
but the way some of the important
news has been handled certainly
does not inspire morale in the
When the Bethlehem Steel Cor
porat;6n in Los Angeles recently
instituted 10-hour day, the press
made a great ado about the OBJ
jections of labor-but said nothing
in criticism of the corporation that
reduced its work day from "a TO
20 hours by using two shifts i'm
stead of three.
The company excused itself on
the ground that its shipbuilding
was ahead of the schedule called
for in the contract-as if any
schedule could be ahead of sched-
ule these days.
Another press report that has
drawn the fire of the Administra-
ton is that put out by the United
Press charging that the National
Labor Relations Boards investiga-
ton into the company unionism of
the Curtiss- Wright air crafts
plants had caused planes ready for
delivery to be grounded because
they lacked certain parts. The
story was promptly denounced by
the War Production Board as a
falsehood.
If bottlenecks do develop in
production, it will probably be be-
cause of shortage in aluminium
and steel, according to officials of
the War Production Board. And
that shortage was not caused by
the Japs taking the source of sup
ply, or even by a shortage of ship
ping. 1t was caused by the refusal
of the steel and aluminium trust
to expand their capacity over a
year ago-because they feared
abundance rather than a scarcity
after the war.
FEARLESS COLUMNISTS
While footnoting some of the
misleading headlines for con-
sumers of the press, we want to
pay a deserved compliment to
Washington columnists Drew Pear
son and Robert Allen for their
fearless exposes of such things as
the deal between Standard Oil
and the German chemical trust
which has delayed America in
developing its own synthetic rub
ber processes, and Jesse Jones'
banker bungling of RFC, in which
savings of a few dollars by de-
laying or strait-jacketing certain
production contracts may prolong
the war by years and months.
One almost wishes America had
the English cabinet system by
which parliament can force a
purge of undesirable administra-
tors and reconstitute changes as
radical as if President Roosevelt
replaced Jesse Jones with Norman
Thomas. (There's no wider diff
erence between them than between
Lord Beaverbrook and Sir Stafford
Cripps.)