Evening star., 1942-03-16


Attorney General in charge of. anti
trust prosecutions. For weeks Mr.
Nelson has been trying to iron out
n perplexing situation which ad-
mittedly acts as an impeachment to
all-out war effort. He succeeded in
persusding Attorney General Bidole
and his aggressive lieutenant, Mr..
Arnold, that antitrust prosecutions
should not be undertaken unless de-
tense agencies concurred.
Mr.. Arnold made that concession
but he has just announced some
thing that nullifies his concession.
He says he will hold the sword of
Damocles over the heads Of business
men throughout the war because he
feels that defense agencies are "too
busy" 70 investigate contracts now.
Later on he threatens the Depart
ment Of Justice must tackle things
that were done In haste to see II
there were any Misrepresentation"
Loophole for Action Later.
Such q loophole for eventual prose-
sution does not help law-sbiding
American businessmen who want to
punishment is and not what the
whim of the Department Of Justice
may be o few months hence. If anti
trust laws are to be suspended, they
want Congress to do the suspend
Ing and specifically define the limits.
The Business Advisory Council
has hoped that Donald Nelson would
be able to clear up this point. The
council met on January 80 and as
usual gave no publicity to its ses-
sion. 1t Is learned, however, that
the council submitted q report for
the consideration OF Secretary Of
Commerce Jones, Donald Nelson and
President Roosevelt which says IN
part with reference to an-out pro-
duction for victory:
The final problem In the purely
negative one Of removing the legal
istic dead hand from efforts to clear
the decks for all-out production.
.'s 1t Is understood that the At
torney General is willing to relax
his participation In procedures to the
extent of requests made to him by
the War Production Board. This Is
an important step but not in itself
a cure Of any substantial nature.
The reason for resorting to the At
torney General In the first place for
clearances was the need for some
protection to enable competitors to
cooperate in doing whatever they
were asked to do. If the Attorney
Generals omission from the picture
also omits the protection, the dead
hand of legaliStic fears will still be
q restraining influence OF impor-
tance. Many of those whose full CO.
operation Is needed are now In court
on antitrust charges for co-operat--
ing or have recently been indicted
for cooperation. Indictments by
succeeding administrations might be
prevented but treble damage suits
are uncomfortable by any Attorney
General.
Valuable Time Taken Up.
.1t should be noted that price col
lusion will not be O problem due to
special legislation as to price cell
ings. The antitrust laws cannot be
suspended by administrative inter-
probation. This point has been
brought home with great force by
the Supreme Court in the Madison
oil case, and the clear implication
OF that case was that Congress must
be called upon for aid If antitrust
laws ever fail to satisfy obvious re-
uuirements of justice or obvious
public interest required at q given
moment.
The minimum required to meet
this situation Is authority to the
President from Congress to enable
the President, or those to whom he
delegates authority, to effectively