Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 137, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1918 — DOING WRONG TO DO RIGHT [ARTICLE]

DOING WRONG TO DO RIGHT

Manufacturers Form Combination to Assist Government Directly in Violation of Sherman Antitrust Law. connected with one of the biggest plants of its kind in the country told a writer for the Philadelphia Ledger recently that the government wanted one of its products, but wanted it in such enormous quantities and in such haste that it would have been impossible for any one plant to turn it out. The manufacturer wanted to help the government, so he called together the representatives of ih6re than a dozen other large plants in the same line of business and explained the situation to them. “We must agree on a price, a low price> so the government can get what it needs.” • All were competitors, but they came to the government’s assistance and agreed to make the product and deliver, it for a price so low that there not only would be no excess, profits to tax, but there was a strong belief that there would be no poflts at all. “This combination,” remarked the manufacturer, “was directly in violation of the Sherman antitrust law, and at any other time we might all be put in jail. But it was the only way.”