The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-10-20

gins to become understandable. And a simplifcation of this kind has just been made by Wendell Berge, new assistant attorney general in charge of the antitrust division, testifying before Senate Military Affairs subcommittee conducting hearings on West Virginia Senator Harley M. Kilgore's bill to establish an office of scientific and techno- logical mobilization. What the Kill gore bill really seeks to do is en- courage government research, as against private research, in the public interest.
 CASES FROM FILES
 From Department of Justice files, Berge brought forth three examples of how private research might be perverted against the public inter- est.
 First was disclosure that pro- posals had been considered to shorten the life of hashlight bulbs, so that the lamp would last only as long as the batteries. Previously, lamps had been made that were supposed to outlast three batteries in normal service. Then an agree- ment was reached between certain lamp and battery manufacturers whereby the latter agreed to accept and offer for sale lamps that would last only a slong as the life of two batteries.
 But the lamp manufacturers weren't satisfied with this and so they kept pushing for the accept- ance of the one battery-life lamp. If this were done" said the corre- spondence introduced by Berge, we estimate that 1t would result in in- creasing our flashlight business ap- proximately 60 per cent"
 A second instance cited by Berge concerned efforts to maintain two price scales on a substance known as methyl metacrylate, @ plastic used to make airplane windshields and also excellent for dental plates and dentures. The only difference was that the stuff sold for indus trial uses brought 95 cents @ pound while that used for dental work brought $45 pound. Dentists soon st wise to the fact that the 95-cent variety was just as good as the $45 variety, so stopped buying at the higher price.
 POLLUTION PROPOSED
 To beat this development and maintain a market at the higher price, one of the manufacturers of the material proposed that there be introduced into the compound sold industrially substance which would not affect the qualities as a plastic, but which would make 1t unfit for dental work.
 A third case of perverted research mentioned by Berge concerned the development of a new color pigment in the tightly controlled dyestuffs industry. The material in question could be used satisfactorily in paints, also in dyes for textiles. The price as a paint was much lower, however, than the price level of pigments used in textile dyes, so immediately there arose the prob lem of contaminating the material sold to paint makers so that 1t could not be used by the textile mills.
 Eight different proposals were made by research organization. according to Berge, to bring about this differentiation. Among the suggestions was one to introduce ground glass into the pigment. which would not affect the paint but would ruin the rubber rollers of the textile mills. Another was to introduce resins and solvents which would again not spoil the paint but which, if used in textile prints worn as clothing, would irritate the skin and lead to dermatitis.