The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-07-28
Big Press Ignores
Monopoly Talks
By BerIe, ArnaII

~ DVsaC9 HfHoH
Washington (LPA)-Big news,
which the daily news papers are
ignoring, is breaking in the House
monopoly investigation, headed by
Rep. Emanuel Celler Cd, N.Y..
On a single day last week two
responsible men, both former high
officials Of government, solemnly
warned the Judiciary Committee,
which is conducting the investiga-
tion, that unless the growth Of
monopoly is blocked, capitalism
will be destroyed.
Adolph Berle, former assistant
secretary Of State, testified that
the committee faced the problem
of power that flows from industrial
concentration-power Ito exclude
or dominate the small business,
power ultimately to revolutionize
American life" and power that
has to be accepted as dominant,
regulated as a servant, or social
lied outright"
"It is not an accident, Berle
added, "that in those countries
where concentration has run with
out restraint there is substantial
lily socialized system so that to-
day we are the very last great
power running on a system of free
capitalism"
Ellis Arnall, former governor of
Georgia, warned that monopoly
was working hand in hand with
communism to destroy our system
of free competitive enterprise" F"
He said there was "little difference
between the extreme left which
wants government to regulate
everything and the extreme right
which want business bureaucracy
to regulate everything"
Both men had suggestions to
offer to stop the trend. Arnall
wanted much sitter penalties for
violation of the antitrust laws in
cluding Jail sentences for offend
ers and the break up of corpora
tions which were found guilty.
Berle said strengthening and anti
trust laws was not enough-that
more fundamental remedies were
needed to stop the growth of con-
centrated economic power. He pro-
posed to limit the size of industrial
cOrporations-exce in the fields
of transportation and cOmmunica-
tion and positive steps to foster
small business enterprise.
Berle presented statistics show
ing that in the past 80 years al
most all new business capital has
come from undistributed profits of
industry-chiefly in the hands of
the big corporations. This has been
the source of 81 per cent of new
capital investment, he said. Out of
a total capital growth of TO bill
lion dollars during this period, he
said, only about Is billion was
available to small business-or
about 500 million dollars year.
And that figure, he added, "is pro-
badly padded"
Warning that the big corpora
tions would continue to grow big
ger unless something was done to
stop them, Berle urged the COM
mittee to offer legislation fixing
limit (flexibly through administra-
tive procedure) beyond which corp
orations could not grow, because
"mere size does become dangerous
in and Of itself"
The limit, Berle said, would have
to be fixed by some agency in each
case-at the point "where industry
became so large it threatened to
engulf the state or force the state
to engulf it." As precedent, he
noted that the Public Utilities
Holding Act, enacted early in the
New Deal, limited holding COM
panies to operating in no more
than four States.
Berle strongly urged the COM
mittee also to provide machinery |
for getting capital into the hands
of new and small business. While
he did not mention it, Berle's testi-
mony strongly supported the Econ
omic Expansion Act recently intro
duced by Sen. James f. Murray
Cd, Mont.) and others, which pro-
vides $3,000,O00,00O through the
RFC for just this purpose.
Arnall, testifying about mono
poly in the railroads and the
movies where he has had a parti
cularly good opportunity to study
the situation, called for a whole
new set of penalties for antitrust
He said the present pen
alties are ridiculous"
He proposed that corporations
found guilty of antitrust viola
ion be denied access to interstate
that the officers be ex-
,elled and severely penalized per-
,onally by Jail sentences and heavy
ines; that more money be provid-
ID for antitrust prosecution; that
inancial help be provided for
mall companies; and that all ex-
,mptions from the antitrust laws
,e repealed.