Imperial Valley press., 1943-11-19
MORE EMERGENCY LEGISLATION

We all realize that a state of war
emergency demands certain laws and
practices which are expedient and neces-
sary to successful action, even though
they would not be asked or allowed in
peacetime. But the term war emergen-
cy' has been invoked in the present
Congress on several occasions as an ex-
cuse for measures whose passage could
scarcely affect the war one way or the
other, and whose provisions of debatable
merit, to say the least. The bills to sub
sidiZe the public schools and the public
press are two that come readily to mind.
But the latest one, the so-called Ellender
Bill, tops them all
This bill has to do with the tire busi-
ness, and was introduced in the Senate
by the junior senator from louisiana
on behalf of the committee studying
small business problems. 1t would pro-
hibit all but independent dealers from
selling new, rebuilt or recapped tires
Except when they are part of an automo-
bile purchase), and from recapping or
servicing tires This would put out of
business all retail tire stores operated
by tire manufacturers, and would forbid
the sale of tires by gasoline stations and
by any person or organization owning
or controlling 10 per cent of a tire
manufacturing corporation.
The original excuse for all this was
the fear that independent dealers might
be forced out of business by the shortage
of new tires. But in the past year the
independents have done about Sc per
cent of the S610 million tire business. Of
the rest, the so-called mass distribut-
ors', mail-order houses and big auto sup
ply retailers, did "a per cent, and the
company-oWned stores and filling sta
tions did the remaining 10 per cent.
Company stores have been charged
with price cutting and unfair competi-
ton. The company stores hold that such
instances are only healthy competition,
and that if they had been cutting their
opposition's throat, their volume of bust
ness would have been increased rather
than declined.
But true or false, the Ellender Bill is
not the solution. If competitors can be
legislated out of business and manufac-
turers prohibited from retailing their
own products, then the country's busi-
ness future is extremely chaotic. 1nde-
pendent retailers of automobiles, cloth
ing. dairy products, radios and many
other items could press for application
of the same law in their own cases.
The United States Supreme Court has
ruled that prime test of monopoly Is
whether or not the public is injured. The
pubic mas not cONlpldllleu dUout lIle
company-owned tire stores. Rather, the
Ellender bill is the outcome of probably
well-meaning, but certainly short-sighted,
efforts to help small business
The whole tire business is in enough
of a mess now without adding to it. And
the postwar outlook for business is ser
ious enough without the confusion and
sitting of initiative and opportunity that
a general application of this legislation
would invite. 1t is to be hoped that the
Senate Banking and Currency committee
will forget the Ellender bill, swiftly and
completely.
CENSORSHIP
Our dispensers of information in
Washington might ponder with profit
the wise observation made by Paul Bel
lamy, editor of the Cleveland Plain Deal
er, in a recent address.
Said Mr.. Bellamy: my quarrel with
much of the censorship idea entertained
by both the Army and Navy, and to
certain extent by other departments OF
the Government is that many of these