The people's voice., 1957-07-26

port is seen here as the opening gun,
1t was no coincidence that the blast
came in the form of press release
accompanying pamphlet called the
Significance of Concentration Ra-
tios". The booklet is billed as being
number one in series on the meas
urement of concentration in industry.
The strategy is aimed at proving that
monopoly really isn't on the rise, and
that it only looks that way because
the economists are using the wrong
criteria for measurement.
Sharp-eyed critics of monopoly
plan to watch the campaign as it de-
velops. 1t has even been limited on
Capitol Hill that study of the propa-
ganda push and its hackers might
itself provide fascinating material for
future congressional investigation.
The hostile climate for bigness has
been building up consistently for a
number of years, with the Senate
Antitrust subcommittee and it's
House counterpart carefully provid-
ing facts, figures and testimony.
One key difficulty has been that the
press considers monopoly to be hot
subject which touches much too close
ly on advertising lineage.
BUSINESS CRITICISM
In spite of this, the big boys are
beginning to feel the heat. One sig
nificant shift worth watching is the
increasing criticism of monopoly from
within the business community itself
Last year automobile dealers got a
chance to testify before congressional
committees about the rough treat
ment they have received at the hands
of the big car makers.
The result was passage by jolting
majorities in both houses of a bill
giving dealers the right to sue in fed
eral court to recover damages from
manufacturers who fail to act in
good faith" in carrying out terms of
dealer contracts.
One by-product of this investiga-
tion was the issuance of a startling,
though not widely publicized, report
by the American Institute of Manage
ment bitterly eondemning giantism in
industry. What made this so surpris-
ing is that AIM is an industry-backed
research organization which had, un-
til then, been a leading apologist for
General Motors and the other giants.
The turnabout report bristled with
arguments long familiar to liberal
critics of monopoly. AIM went so far
as to suggest that it may be necessary
to place absolute limits on corporate
size. 1t proposed, for example, that
Individual companies be limited to a
given percentage of gross national
product. In an example it noted that
f companies were limited to one per
cent of GIMP, General Motors would
automatically be forced to trim itself
Down to one-third it's present size.
The report trampled on traditional
arguments that the laws
IF efficiency tend to hold bigness in
check. AIM, also taking note of grow
ng national concern with the prob
EN-, said some such program as it
suggested is necessary to counteract
Inevitable pressure for naturalization
If the industrial elephants.
OF ANXIETY
This then is the background of in
anxiety in the world of the
itans. Certainly, if new period of
rust-busting is tip-toeing over the
hreshhold of history, it will be re-
isted with all the firepower that the
Chamber, the NAM, their satellite or
and the individual big
'oys behind them can bring to bear
All of this raises fundamental ques-
ions of economic and social theory.
The key problem: Can giantism be
topped? Can the natural economic
rocesses that lead to concentration