Kefauver's Crusade
Gray, Horace M.
BOOKS Kefauver's Crusade In a Few Hands: monopoly power in America, by Estes Kefauver, with the assistance of Irene Till. Pantheon Books. 239 pp. $4.95. Reviewed by Horace M. Gray Estes...
...For example, when he learned that a pill which cost one cent to produce was sold for ten dollars, he asked those responsible to explain this extraordinary markup...
...Scholars in research institutes and universities critically examine American defense and debate possibilities and postures...
...The vaunted "new sense of social responsibility" of which business propagandists boast is conspicuous by its absence...
...Together with the peace movement and its sympathizers, these, strategists constitute what Arthur Herzog calls "the War-Peace Establishment...
...265 pp...
...With dogged determination and courage born of conviction he dedicated himself to resisting it...
...The remedies are equally simple: abolish privilege, decentralize economic power, restore the free market, and strengthen the institutions for maintaining competition...
...He also felt deeply that it was his responsibility to provide the requisite information...
...Descended from pioneer Huguenot stock and reared in Southern Populist politics, he reflected both...
...This book is a last testament and profession of faith to the American people by their most distinguished Senatorial champion against monopoly...
...In investigating these issues, he has embarked upon a chatty, quick survey of the dominant groups of thought within this "establishment...
...The Great Debate: Theories of Nuclear Strategy, by Raymond Aron and translated by Ernest Pawel...
...Senator Kefauver had an abiding confidence in the capacity of the people, if informed, to act intelligently in their own interest...
...Monopoly is inherently evil because it robs the people, restricts their freedom, and corrupts democracy...
...Outwardly, he appeared a plain man of ordinary intellectual and personal endowments, somewhat introspective and uncommunicative, slow in action, fumbling in speech...
...even where it achieves some technical efficiency this advantage is nullified by the artificial costs of maintaining market power and by the resulting exploitation of the people...
...Indebted to Robert Levine's more probing, but...
...Senator from . Tennessee, died on August 10, 1963, after having served continuously in Congress since 1939, the last fourteen years in the Senate...
...but even in defeat he was frequently able to force concessions to safeguard the public interest...
...He was one of the few in Congress who understood the nature of this movement and its implications...
...Most of the text is devoted to a discussion of four industries investigated by his Subcommittee: drugs, automobiles, steel, and bakeries...
...Reviewed by Bart Bernstein Strategy today is no longer the exclusive province of military men...
...By making the good fight he demonstrated that no struggle for freedom and conscience is ever without its measure of victory...
...His battles against monopoly were dramatic and epical...
...The current dogma that monopoly is efficient is refuted...
...It was revised and edited, in accordance with his written instructions, by Irene Till with the assistance of John M. Blair and other members of the Senator's staff...
...If, as has been said, Kefauver was "the conscience of the Senate," how can one account for this moral leadership...
...Its declared purpose is to make available the essential facts about the monopolistic practices uncovered by the investigations of his Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly...
...The fact that he drove himself unmercifully to fulfill this obligation is a measure of his public character...
...As a result, he preserved areas of free competition which otherwise might have been extinguished...
...Thus, when issue was joined on a question of principle he was guided by his Huguenot conscience and his sense of public interest...
...In conclusion, Senator Kefauver warns of the dangers to freedom and democracy if nothing is done to correct the excessive concentration of economic power, and he expresses the hope that the American people will meet the challenge...
...Senator Kefauver served during a period when big business was moving toward higher levels of concentration...
...Some he won, others he lost...
...The record reveals how monopolists concentrate power, and how they use this power to destroy competition and to rob the public...
...Monopoly is a human contrivance, created by man rather than dictated by external forces...
...Kefauver's theory of monopoly was simple and earthy, derived from objective study of behavior rather than from metaphysics...
...271 pp...
...This is followed by a brief analysis of the evil effects of monopoly on local communities and a longer discussion of alternatives, remedies, and public policies, based on the testimony of expert witnesses...
...The instrument for effecting these changes is an informed citizenry operating through democratic government...
...If the American people heed this lesson they will prove themselves worthy of such a champion...
...The manuscript for In a Few Hands was substantially complete at his death...
...from the latter his deep concern for the fate of "little" people in an age of giantism...
...From the former he derived his moral convictions and love of freedom...
...if something was right and in the public interest, he would support it regardless of the political consequences...
...Their rationalizations would disclose other information and open new leads, which he would pursue implacably...
...The uninitiated will find these revelations shocking...
...Reviewed by Horace M. Gray Estes Kefauver, U.S...
...Peace Strategies The War-Peace Establishment, by Arthur Herzog...
...It shows how government, by nonfeasance and malfeasance, contributes to the process of monopolization...
...He was "the conscience of the Senate" because he had a conscience and the courage to follow it—a combination of virtues too frequently lacking in that august body...
...Herzog, a former magazine editor and now full-time journalist, suffers from what he calls "nucleomitphobia," the fear of atomic attack, which inspired his quest to understand the great debate over peace and war...
...Harper 8c Row...
...It shows how market power is protected and maintained against rival oligopolists and potential competitors...
...Thus, by persistent probing—and he was one of the best interrogators in the Senate —he would ferret out the facts about monopolistic tactics...
...Doubleday...
...In the absence of effective public restraint men will strive to enhance their profits by destroying the free market...
...Senator Kefauver's method of investigation was simple but devastating...
...Yet, beneath this exterior was an inner man of great strength and intelligence, of extraordinary patience and courage, of deep conviction and human sympathy...
Vol. 29 • April 1965 • No. 4
