Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-02-23

a "a
If productive enterprises and tending to deoase the
quality of me-! ohandse by unfair competition
Il was recognized al the time that in no field oil
commerce vas protection of Just prices and OF high
standards more important than IN the drug business
for the quality OF drugs like that Of food utaly affects
the public health
ONCE the law Was changed the manufacturing and
y wholesale drug industries have properly aVaed mem
selves 81 the legislation for the very purposes for which
the legislation Intended
And now a leading portion of the entire industry
the National Wholesale Druggists Association comprls-
ING 2l1 Well established conccrns-hnds itself with %
ot It's member companies and 20 officers and agents m
dc,ed bv federal grand jury IN New Jersey on charges
of luuspiuug 10 violate the Sherman Act,
The specific. charge evidently s'that the wholesale
druggists, broke the old law by fixing prices, but
bv fXac wholesalers margins of profits on drug prod
ucts-ahough II IS impossible TO discern how the law
full ana desirable principle OF fair price maintenance
could possibly bc made effective without incidentally
sabizng the profit which forms single and necessary
part Of the safe price
THE wholesale druggists apparently find themselves
/ in the same predicament did the fuel OIL pro-
ducers and distributors who indicted and tired at
Madison Wis. a few years ago
In that instance Secretary Of the Interior Harold
l. ckes functioning federal oil administrator asked
and authorized the oil interests enter into trade
arrangement to stabilize the oil market.
Desiring 10 assist the governments economic re-
covcrv program at that time, the oil men complied
subsequently they indicted by Thurman l.
Ar6ids antitrust division of the department of justice
and heavily fined for doing what the government
had required them to do-with neither MIR lckcs nor
any other representative of the government appearing
in either 10 testify IN their behalf or TO justify
the governments oil policy.
In the pending case, with Congress and virtually
all the legislatures making price maintenance prae
tires legal and proper these wholesale druggists ma
themselves brought up on criminal charges OF breaking
the very law which the government itself had amended
to permit and promote Just such practices
NdR. HAROLD HARPER, counsel for the druggists
wi association has described his clients position in
these words
The association has welcomed the far-trade laws
which have been enacted in 10 states and has
couraged manufacturers to take advantage of their
visions because believes that the Sterilization of whole
sale and retail prices by the manufacturers results IN
efficient and less wastefu distribution.
while the indictment ACKNOWLEDGES THE
EXISTENCE OF FAIR TRADE LEGISLATION it
leaves so SMALL A SCOPE FOR ITS OPERATION
that the policy would EMASCULATE FAIR-TRADE
LEGISLATION and return the drug industry and Others
TO THE JUNGLE OF PRICE CUTTING"
But the issue involved is broader than that
For several years the department of justice has
used interpretations of the antitrust laws to
harass legitimate business enterprise,
Nd when the nation is at when the treas
n ury endeavorng to collect taxes from industry
TO the very point of confscaton, when the government
is depending upon private enterprise to sustain it. the
department Of Justice CONTINUES to ndct business
on technical accusations involving suspicion of moral
turpltude--actng if reentessy determined to DE
STKOY business and to PREVENT the payment of any
corporation taxes all
Thurman Arnold IN charge of these antitrust
prosecutions former Yale professor who, seems,
Ic.l byr llhlls
book called The Folklore of Capitalism
Are the dcstlnIes Of this country be forever re-
posed tro hands Of Missionaries and ncompeents2