The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1946-01-25
General Electric



the Federal Trade commission on jar
uary "a, 1910, complaining about tn
shortage and the price Of tungsten
carbide.
Carboloy today is in mucl
stronger position than before the wa
to restrict production on vital pro
duct In fact, as | have told you thu
monopolists in America, as in tn,
world, are stronger than ever before
Cemented tungsten carbide ma,
seem a long way from anything tina
might affect the daily life of each o.
us so let us take look at what G.E
does with an everyday necessity =
something everyone buys as a neces
sity-light bulbs.
The high prices obtained upon cleo
trio lamp bulbs in the United States
| by virtue of the inter-related restrie
lions of the American patent monop
oily and the international lamp carte
according to computations by the de
partment of justice from figures sup
piled by General Electric from 1895 to
1889 gave GE. a net profit on inca
descent lamps varying from Ga to So
per cent of total costs and expenses
in lamp manufacture and from 33 to
AZ per cent of the net worth of the
company's lamp-producing investment!
Under international cartel agree
ments the American market has been
reserved for the American manufac-
turing companies, General Electric and
Westinghouse and markets in other
parts of the world have been divided
among the parties to the cartel agree.
ment.
Protected from foreign competition,
American manufacturers have at
tempted to increase their business by
reducing the durability of their light
bulbs.
In 1882 General Electric proposed
a reduction in the life of flashlight
lamps from the old basis on which one
lamp was supposed to outlast three
batteries, to a point where the life
of the lamp and the life of the battery
under service conditions would be APP
proximately equal The battery manu-
facturers went part way on this ar
rangement and accepted lamps of two
battery lives instead of three.
General Electric then proposed that
they use one-battery life lamps If
this could be worked out with the bat
terry manufacturers it would increase
the flashlight business approximately
so per cent.
In 1887 General Electric reduced the
life of the 2OO-watt 11O-12O-volt bulb
from 1000 hours design to $50 hours.
No publicity at all was given to this
fact!
By arrangement with the electric
utility companies, General Electric
has refused to sell freely certain types
Of lamps which reduce the consump-
ion of electric current and in return
las received the aid of these com
Danies in promoting the sales of GLE.
amps!
AS part of the alliance between Gen
sral Electric and the utility companies
n the development of fluorescent |
lighting for indoor use an effort has
been made to prevent the substitu- |
ion of fluorescent lamps for conven-
ional lamps unless the use of light |
S sufficiently increased to avoid
lrop in wattage.
A fluorescent lighting display by
General Electric at the New York |
Worlds Fair in 1910 was altered be-
:ause the utility companies protested |
hat it showed the superiority of
luorescent installation for household |
Use.
To prevent competition in quality, |
ieneral Electric licensees were in
uced to make their own lamps con-
orm to G.E. Mazda lamps in endur-
nee and lighting efficiency and to
void comparative tests of quality.
A General Electric official wrote as
ollows to a licensee: I'VE have all
Ound the difficulty of depending upon
OCCASIONAL tests as a rival measure of
uality, and we have all rather come
0 the conclusion that in dealing with
pecifications and acceptability of
amps, it is far better to secure ac-
'IONAL CONFIDENCE rather than ,
} urge general or broad program
testing individual lots"
Yes, the dear public, should have
ne utmost confidence in an organiza-
on that will stoop to chisel on flash
ght bulbs and sell out their country's
efense program by fantastic prices
n tungsten carbidesi
The list of corporations that in.
llged in this sort of thing is practi- !
lilly endless. Some of them even
ent so far as discussing the idea of
materials so that they would
ot pass the pure food and drug in
1ectors and the price could be held
D on this same commodity in another
Sc.
For instance the Rohm e Hass COM /:
my makes plastics. This company Z
IS long and very bad record in the /:
Irtel agreements.
They make a commercial moulding q
,wder that they sold to industrial
iers for IS cents per pound The
Try same product was sold to den
SITS and dental laboratories for den 4
res at s45 per pound When den
SITS discovered there was no differ III
ice in the powders they began buy II
g from industrial users Robin & II
ass Immediately suggested that they II
I'D some way of putting arsenic into II
is powder so it would not pass the
ire food inspectors and therefore the
ntists could not buy it for IS cents