Imperial Valley press. (El Centro, Calif.) 1907-current, 1942-05-06
LOOKS LIKE ABUSE

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headlines. to suspect that some per-
sons or cliques in Washington are
using the war to knock down few
big corporations which offend
against certain current economic
ideologieS.
We hope this suspicion is I'M
charitable. At the same time, we
hope the unpleasant accusations
which have been made by certain
assistants to the attorney general
will prove to be unfounded.
For some time news columns have
been pockmarked with allegations
that certain American concerns
have deliberately hampered our war
production.
There is the long series of cases
in which Thurman Arnold and his
assistants attribute this obsfruc-
tioniSm TO international cartels.
under which German producers
are said to have given Hitler all the
strategic materials he wanted while
our corporations selfishly kept out
put below national requirements.
More recently there is the charge
that the largest producer of steel
Carnegie Illinois, and the fourth
largest, Jones & Laughlin, persist
emily have violated priority regula-
tons over period of almost a
year.
This last accusation seems almost
unbelievable, even though it is
made by the responsible War Pro-
duction Board.
Big Business has many past sins
for which to answer. Nobody any
longer assumes automatically that
a corporation title and an upper
bracket salary are evidences of Ell
Their supreme intelligence or I'M
aSSailable ethical standards.
Nevertheless, it seems highly i'm
probable that such concerns as
Carnegie Illinois and Jones g.
Laugnlin have deliberately anC
perSistently violated the law and
flouted the national will to win this
war. The coveted Navy Department
Els awarded to both companies-al-
most simultaneously with WPB's
chargeS-in recognition of their
war production contribution, would
raise a question, if common sense
did not
AS for the cartelS cases, there is
compelling ground for wondering
whether some young lawyers en-
thusiasm for headlines did not lead
them aStray.
General Electric. for instance, is
accused Of causing bottle-neck in
machine tools by restricting pro-
duction of tungsten carbide under
pooling arrangement with Krupp
But G.. E. says fatty that the
invention originated in Germany.
1t was protected by federal law,
under patents. No American con-
Germ could have used it except by
agreement with Krupp. 1t was only
through the contract between G.E.
and Krupp that we had am tung-
stem carbide at all. Because of the
now denounced rotent pool, we and
our allies have been enabled to use
the valuable metal against Ger
many
The same situation obtained in
the case of plastic glass. If DUPONT
and Rohm & Haas had not en-
tered into arrangements with the
Germans, our federal law would
have prevented any American cor
poraticn from making the product.
If General Electric, Dupont
Rohm & Haas have been price
squeezing the public, the govern
ment has a duty to act.
1t is an abuse of public corfi-
dence, however, if the war is be-
ing used illegitimately to destroy
the reputation for loyalty of out
standing industrial companies in
furtherance of somebody's dislike
for Big Business.
HOLDING THE BAG
The Reconstruction Finance Cor
poration's willingness to take un-
salable automobiles, tires, refrigera-
tors, ETC., off the hands of manu-
fscturers is commendable step to-
ward relief of an extremely hard
hit class of little business men
LEGAL ADVERTISEMENT