Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 29 January 1941 — Page 5

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* production,

DEFENSE EFFORTS

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International Business Combines Have Controlled Vital , Supplies and Devices; Government Moving

In to Break Up Monopolies.

(Some of the basic commodities necessary to American rearma-

ment are controlled by close-knit

business. combinations—in som: of

which American firms are intimately tied up with German concerns. In a series of articles, of which this is the first, some of these situ-

ations will be explored.)

By THOMAS L. STOKES Times Special Writer

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29.—The present ‘emergency, like those of 1917 and earlier, finds the Government searching its cupboards for the necessities of defense and coming from that experience with some digillusionment, It finds again, as in 1917, that giant international car-

tels, combinations of foreign monopolies (particularly Ger-

man) with big American corporations, have been in control of some of the necessary ingredients of airplanes,

battleships, tanks and guns.

Production was controlled, prices kept sky-high, and patents so closely held that outsiders found difficulty in entering the field to drive down prices, spread production, and make the necessities of war easily available. Essential minerals and metals, which the Germans used to such advantage in building their war machine, are included in the cartels — a luminum; beryllium, a metal which in alloys produces one of the strongest and hardest materials; tungsten rei carbide, the Mr. Stokes hardes} sub- : stance known next to diamonds and widely used in German machine-tooling; magnesium, which is lighter than aluminum on a 3-to-2 ratio; iridium, a precious metal with many industrial uses; magnesite, essential in steel manufacture; optical glass instruments of all sorts, including gun sights. The operation of these cartels, the secret agreements dividing up the world among two or three mammoth corporations, the devious schemes for controlling production and fixing prices, the exchange in some cases of national-defense information, are more fantastic in their way than fictional yarns of international intrigue.

Experience No Teacher

Experience did not prove to be a good teacher for the United States in the case of these cartels. In the last war this country encountered foreign monopolies which it had to circumvent in one wdy or another. But they have continued to expand and flourish. Recently the necessity of national defense goaded the Government into action. Luckily there was a weapon ‘at hand in the anti-trust laws, and a militant. wielder of that weapon in the person of Thurman W. Arnold, chief of the Justice Department's anti-trust division. ‘Though short of personnel and funds, Mr. Arnold has got action started on several fronts. Sensational evidence is being laid now pPefore the grand juries. More is to follow. The ultimate success of his campaign will depend on whether Congress gives the division enough money to prosecute its work. Already the Government has sucoeeded in breaking up through a consent decree the patent and price-fixing monopoly of the Bausch & Lomp Optical Co., an arrangement formerly enforced by an agreement with the German Zeiss Corp. They operated through an agreement dividing up the world’s markets. Military optical instruments in which the two companies held a monopoly included riscopes for‘ submarines, range nders, altimeters, boresights, bomb sights, torpedo directors and sights for guns, among others.

G. E. and Krupp Indicted

Last August a New York grand Jury indicted General Electric and the German Krupp Co. for an alleged monopoly in tungsten carbide and alloys. They were charged with dividing up markets, controlling crushing competing companies, and fixing excessive prices. The price of the materials, which was as low as $48 a pound before the agreement, got as high as $453 subsequently. Only lately a New York grand Jury has indicted German and American firms for an alleged monopoly in violation of the anti-trust laws in- magnesite, essential in the manufacture of steel. The threat of Government action has served to bring down prices of essential materials, but the Justice Department intends to push its campaign to the ultimate point of breaking up these monopolies. Its

others.gnd turning up amazing evidence. | : The | present emergency, [like others, |aléo brings in its train the usual sttempts to exploit the nation's rieed of many ordinar):materials and supplies. Tried to Corner Food Somebody or other, for initance, apparently tried to corner IVo. 10 size canned food, tHe larg: size usually| purchased. But th: National Defense Advisory Comriission announced that the Quartermaster General had authorized the purchase ¢f canned food in No. 2 and 21; sizes, as an alternate to No. 10. Repeatedly, Leon Henderson, in charge |of| the price stabilization division | of the Defense Advisory Commissipn, has been projesting about [the high price of lumber. Prices have come down some, but are still above a point believed justified by Government price experts. Mr. Arnold now has under way a comprehensive investigation of food of all kinds, and of the varicdus devices used to increase its cost to the consumer. He holds that it is better to police the- price structure through (the anti-trust weapon by breaking up the various devices, long existent, which | keep up prices artificially, than to impose rigid price ‘controls by exe¢utive fiat or legislative: act.’

NEXT: How Cartels Operate in Some Vital Defense Mater als.

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