Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1949-12-16

WASHINGTON LPA) - The daily news
w papers have almost completely ignored
one of the biggest stories completely ignored
in Washington recently - the drafting of
legislation to break up the giant monoplies
into smaller companies.
1t also has ignored another story-that
the experience of the Securities and Exchange
Commission in dissolving the huge public
utility holding companies has resulted in
big break for the stockholders in those COM
panes Their securities are worth much more
today than they were IA years ago when the
law was passed ordering them broken up.
There is a close connection between these
two stories which the daily newspapers have
PLAYED down. Both stories were broken by the
Celler Committee of the House, which has
been investigating mOnOpoles. And the new
legislation - for breaking up the big indus
trial giants - is direct copy OF the legisla-
tion enacted by Congress ID years ago which
has been SO successfully operated.
In other words, the Celler Committee now
has legislation - based on 10 years of sue
cessful government experience - for break
ing up big monopolies into smaller companies
for the good of the country and even for the
benefit of the stockholders in these companies.
This is rather big news, even to hardened
old Washington correspondent But it didn't
get into the newspapers - at least the news
papers most of us read. 1t important
enough to be thoroughly covered by the fl
nancial and trade papers that businessmen
read They know all about it. But the public
which would benefit most if the legislation
were enacted-has not been told about it.
The most extraordinary thing about this
is that the newspapers were present when
the story broke. But they preferred to write
their stories not about this bill--but about the
testimony of other witnesses, the president OF
one of the big insurance companies, who
denied, of course that there was any danger
in big business and warned the Federal gov
ernment to keep its hands off the insurance
companies. There wasn't any real news in
this big businessmen and insurance men
had been saying the same thing for days. But
the reporters knew what their papers pre-
ferred-and they wrote their stories that way.
Just as one example of how the press
handled the story-which broke before the
Celer Committee Dec l - is typical. The
Washington Posts lead said:
president Thomas l. Parkinson of the
Equitable Life Assurance Co, urged the Fed
eral Government yesterday to keep hands off
the insurance business"
The Post story then went into detail cover
age of what Parkinson had said, and even
reviewed what Charles f. Wilson, President
of General Electric, had said along the same
line the day before. But it did not mention
the new legislation until the last paragraph
of column long story 1t did not disclose
that the proposal was based the success
full experience of the SEC The average news
paper reader even if he got down that far
got no idea of the story or of its significance.
The Washington Times Herald, a Chicago
Tribune puppet, reported that Rep. Wilson
ID, Tex had announced he would reintro-
duce legislation TO make labor unions sub
ject to the antitrust laws This certainly was
not news. Even if Wilson introduces the legis-
- ~, n ~
room for any mention OF the bold new sugges-
ton for curbng industrial monOpolies.
Whether or not the newspapers get excited
about the new legislation, ii is safe to predict
that the proposal will be the subject of serious
debate in the coming days and years 1t was
carefully prepared by brilliant young pro-
fessor of economics from Michigan State Col
lege - Dr. Walter Adams at the request
of Chairman Celler Cd, N.Y. 1t provides a
practical way to do something many liberals
long ago abandoned hope of ever being able
to do--unscramble the big industrial concen-
trations of power that have been built up in
this country.
Only few days earlier the SEC had sub
mitted report showing how successful the
Public Utilities Holding Company Act had
been in breaking up gigantic aggregations of
power. The report showed that instead of
hurting investors in these companies, they
had benefited from tremendously increased
market values on their securities, and had
the public.
In other words, the propaganda put out
by the companies when Congress was battling
over the legislation - that ii was a death
sentence" for the companies--was pure bunk.
This experience suggests that If Congress en-
acted Adams bill stockholders of big indus
trial companies like GE and GIN and DUPONT
likewise benefit as well as the country
generally.
Adams bill was accompanied by a report
from Howard J. Trienens, who teaches anti
trust law at Northwestern University that the
Public Utility Holding company Act was
legally and practically the model for use in
breaking up big companies under the anti
trust laws. He noted that the Utility Act
was itself modelled on the procedure followed
by the Supreme Court In breaking up the
Tobacco trust in 1911 So altogether the proce-
dure has been used by the government for
almost 40 years.
Q.-H my brother, a World War II vet
eran, is admitted to a VA hospital, will his
relatives be allowed to visit him while he is