Evening star., 1946-12-24
By Robert S. Allen
Copyright. l94s, by North Ameriean

| Copyright. 1946, by North American
Newspaper Alliance. Inc.
A report prepared for a House
subcommittee warns that continued
unchecked monopolistic concentra-
| ton in the United States will in
evitably lead to the socialistic. de-
lvelopments now taking place IN
Britain, France and other coun-
! tries.
Severely condemning the inef1ec-
tual Federal antitrust policy and
enforcement, the report charges
that 200 corporations now own
more than so per cent OF all non
financial corporations in the coun-
| try.
| Concentration of monopolistic
control in industry was greatly ac-
celebrated and enlarged by World
War II, the report also asserted
All United States business con-
tributed through taxation to the
81 900 OO0. 900 expended by the Gov
ernment in wartime research. But,
the report declares, 68 corporations
received two-thirds of this huge sum,
and the top 10 of these corporations
nearly two-fifths of the total. Ac-
cording to the report, the Federal
funds received by these 68 corpora
tions greatly exceeded the total
amount spent by the entire Nation
for industrial research in any one
prewar year"
18 Recommendations Made.
The report also charges that over
80 per cent of the Government S
contracts with private firms for war
time research gave the highly valu-
able patent rights resulting from
this research exclusively to the con-
tractors, with the Government re-
ceiving in return only the right to
use these patents for itself free OF
charge.
Seventy-seve per cent OF all these
wartime chronological developments,
the report estimates, can be used for
civilian purposes. ....
The report outlines 1S recommen-
dations for coping with the problem
of economic concentration. Ten OF
the proposals apply to the executive
branch of the Government and eight
to Congress. The recommendations
range from the enunciation OF an
overall antitrust policy to guide all
enforcement agencies, to greatly in
creasing the penalties for law viola
ton.
The voluminous report, over 200
pages in length, was prepared by a
staff of experts employed by the
monopoly subcommittee of the spe-
cial House Committee on Small
Business. Chairman of this COM
mlttee is Representative Patman,
Democrat, of Texas: chairman OF
the subcommittee is Representative
Kefauver, Democrat, Of Tennessee.
Other members of the subcommit-
tee are Representatives Robinson.
Democrat, of Utah; Jackson, Dem
ocrat of Washington; Hall. Repub-
lican. of New York, and Ploeser, Re-
publican, of Missouri.
Control Will Go to COP.
The report has been the subject
vi lICdJCa -tAiS-cSSAASc ~oAA-
troversy within the subcommittee
for several weeks. The two minor
ity Republican members have Wig
orously objected to certain por-
tions of the report and demanded
public hearings on them. The
Democratic majority has opposed
this
After January 3, when the new
Congress convenes, control of the
committee will pass to the Repub-
licans. Representative Hall, mill
tant critic of the report, will be-
come chairman of the subcommit-
tee. The still-controlling Demo-
cratic members are understood to be
planning to force official action
on the report after the Christmas
holiday.
The report asserts that "a high