The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-05-25
|ICkES WOULD
BREAK MONOPOLY
lin aluminium

Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes
called for a government plant disposal
program designed to break the mo
nopoly" of the Aluminium Company of
America in the aluminium production
industry in the the United States, dur
ing testimony before the senate small
business committee, of which Senator
James E. Murray, is chairman.
In testifying on the so-called Ship
shaw aluminium contract under which
the U. S. government is buying large
amounts of aluminium from the Cana
dian Aluminium Company, Secretary
Ickes urged that this contract "be
cancelled at lease partly, and that U.
S. government plants be used to pro-
duce the same metal so long as the
hydro power is available which is
now being wasted"
In simplifying this statement, the
keeping partly idle the government
plants in the northwest while we go
ahead and take deliveries of Canadian
aluminium and build up a surplus of
metal as we did in 1914, that will
force the shutdown of government
plants, as it dbl in 1914, and handicap
the disposal of these plants to any
new competitors of Alcoa."
Secondly, urge that we view these
government-owned plants as vital as
sets belonging to the people as a
whole, to be disposed of for the pur-
pose of strengthening postwar en-
ployment and the national defense"
the secretary added.
He expressed the hope that govern
ment-owned aluminium producing ia
elites may be taken over by indie
pendent enterprises that will operate
them and not shut them down.
81 think the government must de-
liberately use its aluminium plants for
the purpose of assisting another re-
sponsible producer or two to enter
the aluminium industry. That we
should foster another one or two pro-
ducers of primary metal seems to me
to be unquestionably sound. Never
again should this country be placed in
the position of having to rely largely
upon one company for so vital war
material as aluminium. Monopoly can
be even more dangerous in danger
GUS times than it is in normal times"
the secretary said.
He indicated belief that the gov
eminent must help competent new
independent operators who may come
into the aluminium production industry |
f1 hn r,rnbTarnc nf hat
ply and markets. He pointed out |
that the government owns facilities |
for making bauxite into aluminium |
and suggested that an operator of |
these facilities might well use the gov
stockpile of bauxite owned |
by the government, which could be |
replaced with higher quality ore.
The secretary also told the senate
small business committee that he fav-
ors policy of stockpiling aluminium
metal, rather than the policy of stor-
ing bauxite now being followed. He /
indicated that a backlog order for
placed with independent
producers who might seek to enter
the aluminium production industry
might go far toward solving such pro-
ducers problems of immediate mar
kets.
In discussing the Shipshaw con-
tract, the witness indicated to the
that, in his opinion, the
contract fosters the monopolistic OPP
of the Aluminium Company of /
America and that the Shipshaw power
project and aluminium producing facil-
tiles should never have been built
with u. S. funds
He sarcastically informed the COM
mittee that of course the Canadian
Company and Alcoa are completely
"Of course" he said,-
they are completely independent, at
least legally" The secretary was re-
Continued On Page FOUR !