The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-06-09

Manufacturing companies have been permitted to pool their facilities for
 war production since last October
 Formation of Petroleum Industry Advisory Council combination was
 sanctioned in December. Transpor-
 tation companies were permitted to take certain joint actions in Feb
 ruary. In March came the policy an-
 nounced by the White House, under
 which the attorney general, the sec
 retsVies of War and Navy and Thur man Arnold, head of the antitrust
 division in the Department of Jus
 tice, agreed to suspension of en- forcement of the Sherman act in
 cases where ware production might be interfered with. Finally there has been the prosopal before Con-
 gress to formalize this procedure by granting the head of the War Pro-
 duction Baord, Donald M. Nelson, legal right to certify certain firms as exempt from prosecution after con- sultation with or on approval of the
 torney general.
 Such action has been declared
 necessary by the War Department and WIPE, but no one has pointed out just what the effects of these suspensions may be, what protec-
 ton of public interest is being sacrificed, what types of action may be dropped, and just how big business or anyone else will ben- eft.
 DECISIONS
 PENDING
 Anti-trust division today has over 160 investigatiosn and cases on. its docket. Some have been tried and are awaiting decision. Others are now being tried. More have been set for trial. Some are before grand juries. Many are as yet mere indict-
 ments. More than 60 are still in-
 vestigations.
 No broad classification can be
 made as to what will be done
 with all these. A full report on pending cases has been made to the War Department. Every one of them will have to be considered individually and when the act granting war relief from anti trust prosecution is passed, a de- eision will be made as to future action in each case.
 Tn many of the cases, Army, Navy or WIPE can have no possi- ble interest, ard 1t may be antici- pated that all such will work their merry way through the courts. Tn | oaroroI fha fnnd nocac i1auNlyiaO alleged conspiracies to fix prices or control markets for sale to ci- williams are outside the sphere of War Department interest.
 There are 60 of these food cases, involving bread, milk, cheese, meat and such stuff. Twenty-Five are still in the inves- tigative stage. Indictments have been returned on 35 and they are in various stages of awaiting trial, on trial or awaiting deci- sions. Tn general, it can be as- stunned that most of these cases will go right ahead.
 FATE
 UNCERTAIN
 AAS 1dLC VI bilC Vt dttbi~huet NhoCo now before the courts, all involving | the processing and production of services or patents es- sential to the war effort. is uncer- tain. |
 On some of these cases, 1t would be of distinct advantage to the mill itary services to have prosecution continued. The Philadelphia hat case, for instance, involves action to break up a combine of manufactur- CTS and labor organizations that en- tered identical bids at high prices for the manufacture of Army head- gear, The war wouldn't be helped any by dropping such suits, or those against firms like I, c, Farbep, the German dye trust,
 It is only il cases where fur- ther investigation or prosecution would interfere with war pr0duc- ti0n that action is to be suspended or postponed, If illegal combi- nations in restraint of trade will make more guns or make guns faster, they'll get by, But the whole antitrust procedure, with the safeguards lt gives the public, Isn't going to be thrown out the window,