The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1946-11-22
Atty General Gets
CONTINUED from Page one)

GreeQy inQuStrlafiSrS nFcdIen
Free Enterprise
Our own path is pain. We must not
permit the economic system in which
we believe, our system of free enter
prise and opportunity with its attend
ant civil rights, to deteriorate. We
vitality and of it's blessings. Assaults
upon it by the selfish must be with
stood.
There are those who would scuttle
our way of life. These greedy men
clamor loudest for free enterprise and
opportunity. Actually, they mean free
dom for their own activities-freedom
to drive competitors from the market
place These men would have freedom
for guaranteed profits and safe mark
cts with none of the risks inherent in
our capitalistic system. They would
have freedom to insulate their bust
ness from the uncertainties of COM
retition and freedom to gorge them
selves with monopolistic profits.
These are not the freedoms to foster
and protect in America. They are not
freedoms at all. They mean only
license-license to carry a business
blackjack in a community where other
citizens go unarmed.
Exposes Methods Of Monopolists
These men would play the game of
restrictive agreements, agreements
which fix arbitrary and unreasonable
prices for the goods which they sell,
agreements which divide markets in
which their goods are sold, agreements
which divide fields of production and
sale, and agreements which suppress
chronological advance and new pro-
ducts.
Let me tell you how their system
operates.
The story of the monopolist who
corners the market is an old one. 1t is
familiar to you all. The Dept. of JUS
tice has fought the oil trust, the
tobacco trust and the railroad trust
and has recently won the battle
against the aluminium trust The title
"Trust-buster" is well earned.
But the monopolist constantly seeks
new methods of tying up markets.
Cornering and controlling markets,
production, prices and inventions are
no longer done openly. Secret agree
ment is now the device. Telephone
conversations and club luncheons have
replaced agreements and memoranda
of understanding.
Public Cheated OF Billions
Price fixing agreements by which
goods are sold at artificial and exor-
bitant prices are common. House
wives, storekeepers, wholesalers and
even manufacturers are forced to pay
tribute to producers of goods and
hoarders of material who have con-
spired in secret to make helpless buy
ers pay monopoly prices. These prices
include the unseen tax of the mono
polist the extra charge which the |
monopolist takes unto himself by |
reason of his preferential position, a
preferential position engineered in
secret to mulct the public ...
This monopoly tax has been reliably |
estimated to reach many billions of
dollars annually. 1t is money which
could have bought more radios and
clothing, automobiles and housing.
Many times, it is money which could
have bought food . +. The American
people demand that these vultures be
stamped out of the market place.
The secret agreement has also been |
employed to parcel out exclusive areas |
for the production and sale of goods. |
Each trading area is then at the
complete mercy of the monopolist who
controls it. The consumer finds no
competition between producers ami
is compelled to pay whatever the mon
opolist cares to charge. This always
includes the monopoly tax.
Cartel Agreements Menace Peace
The evil of division of markets also
embraces our foreign trade. Industry
after industry is subject to export re-
straint. Whole continents have been
delivered as exclusive marketing
areas. These cartelists, and we can so
dignity the monopolists when they
act in combination and in concert with
others, have erected super-govern-
agreements as treaties. There is no
senate, no representative of the con-
sumers, to approve their treaties. The
are sovereign in themselves
and owe allegiance only to their pro-
fits. They know only the diplomacy of
the dollar.
Their policies are planned to with
stand the effects of the rise and fall
of nations. This is clearly revealed in
cases brought by the Department of
Justice against American companies
STANDARD Oil, Aluminium Co of Amer
lea, DuPont) in league with the Ger
man dye-trust, l. G. Farbenindustrie.
Nations conquer or are vanquished
but the monopoly profits of the pri- S
vate economic empires continue.
Name Firms Which Cheat Public
There are also the secret agree
ments which divide fields of produc-
ton and sale. By these devices, the +
divide the pie not geo. V
but according to product a
They may all operate in the same s
area but restrict themselves to speci- "
tic operations or products. No one n
lares enter the field granted to an a
other. L
Such was the case in the glassware :
Here, the conspirators Great II
ed exclusive fields in which each II