Imperial Valley press., 1944-07-03
WHAT ABOUT CARTELS?
(New York Times)

New York Times)
A Washington dispatch to this news
paper reports that a program for post
war handling of cartels has been rec
commended by technical experts of gov
ernment departments. This program
calls for an international agreement
pledging nations to an anti-cartel policy
which. however, would recognize that in
ternational commercial agreements can
serve other than restrictive purposes.
The proposed agreement would include
provision for an international reposi-
tory where agreements of the kind Gus
tomariIv made by cartels would be filed.
This would be an attempt to apply the
"disclosure method" of regulation adopt
ed in the Securities Act In addition, the
technical experts are said to favor
policy of standardiZing the patent SyS-
tens of all countries along the lines of
the British system, which insists that
patents must be worked, and provides
for compulsory licensing.
These proposals indicate somewhat
more realistic thinking on the subject of
cartels than has come out of Washing
ton heretofore. They raise the question
however. whether we should not try to
clarity our own minds on the subject
much further before making internatiOn-
al proposals of this sort. The discussion
of cartels has of late been conducted in
an intensely emotional atmosphere. Vice
President Wallace has even gone to the
length of implying that anyone who be-
leves in cartels is a Fascist at heart.
This would make faScSm very old and
very pervasive philosophy. For the first
cartel, as the New York Trust company
points out in balanced study of cartels
in the current issue of its quarterly In
deX," took root in England about 1885.
Our own Congress in 1918, moreover,
passed the Webb-POmerene Act, which
permitted the formation of associations
"entared into for the sole purpose of en-
gaging in export trade This was, in
effect a law Sanctioning American car
tells as defensive measure against for
eign cartelS.
The policy of the Roosevelt admins
tration on the whole questions of monop-
oily and competition, moreover, has oscil
lated between violent extremes. The
NRA of 1888 did not merely permit in
duStrieS to act cOllusively to fix wages,
hours and prices and to engage in other
'stabiliZing agreements but practically
compelled them to do so. The Guffey
Coal act, not only permitting but COM
pelling all coal mines to maintain mini
mum prices--an act which continued in
effect until Congress failed to renew it
recently-Was another instance of this
policy. The government continues to
grant patent mOnopolies. Yet under the
leadership of Thurman Arnold and his
successors the government has seemed to
insist on absolute or atomistic competi-
ton and has prosecuted business men for
merely making use Gas some of them
thought) of the rights and monopolies
specifically granted to them under the
Webb-Pomerene Act or the patent laws.
The government must make up its own
mind as to what its policy is. Business
plans cannot be confidently made, bus-
ness ventures cannot be confidently
started, until business knows definitely
what the governments policy is regard
ing monopoly and competition, and un-
less it feels that that policy will be
stable one, and not an erratic one depend
ing upon the particular economic ideas
or Whims Of the particular Assistant At
torney General who happens to be in
office