BUSINESS AS USUAL ALONG MONOPOLY ROW
Hanighen, Frank C.
Business As Usual Along Monopoly Row By FRANK C. HANIGHEN Washington, D. C. THIS IS NOT a new story. This is not a sensational story. But the absorption of the press with the highlights of the...
...Carl Hatch of the Truman Committee said of this private company, "If it isn't a monopoly, I would like to know what a monopoly is...
...As such, it has little interest in the production of domestic mica...
...Despite nature's prodigality, man has contrived to restrict its use...
...The American titanium scene, says Mr...
...American shipping in Lend-Lease is officially estimated at one billion dollars or more than the total British reverse Lend-Lease claim...
...In spite of the appearance of a German debacle on the.eastern front, they can find no evidence that the German Staff has sent any divisions to this front from the West...
...Meanwhile, domestic sources in the ground seem to contain plenty of mica...
...There is the matter of mica, for instance...
...there is an old, old principle of Anglo-Saxon, as old as common law, that no man can represent both buyer and seller...
...This private company has been the chief importer of mica...
...H. E. Kershner, Quaker director of this relief in Europe, charges that the British government has prevented this humanitarian work...
...Yet, 18 months after Pearl Harbor, we were still dependent upon imports, flown here from India and Brazil, for the bulk of our supplies...
...Who puts these prices on domestic mica...
...The Truman Committee discovered that the head of the southern branch of the government mica agency happened to be a gentleman who worked for a southern mining equipment firm and whose interests were principally involved in the South...
...The answer is (or seems to be) the Colonial Mica Corporation, a government agency, set up by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation...
...These three companies were indicted by grand jury in New York last June...
...All this prompts caution in predicting the time of the war's end...
...4) the cartel has flagrantly misused patents and has actually paid large sums to potential competitors to keep them out of the business...
...He names no names of individuals...
...The producers in the southern part of the country had less trouble than those in other parts...
...9, 1941, thus aiding the Japanese to evade the embargo which the British had with good cause placed on sale to Japan...
...Hatch to say, "It was said the Bible says you cannot serve two masters...
...Jottings and Joltings Who is responsible for the failure to feed European children in occupied countries...
...It is apparent that the Senate Appropriations Committee in its investigation of Lend-Lease has much to do in clarifying this situation...
...If the Germans really faced danger on the Eastern front, it is reasonable to assume that they would have long ere this rushed substantial help to the Ukraine...
...The radio and radar program a year ago amounted to $20,000,000 a month...
...Mica means nothing to the intelligence of millions...
...All this—not to mention another familiar picture, the failure to stock mica before the war—has an old, old ring...
...The tug of vested interests, the great under-tow of the worldwide cartel system, has created unseen clashes of great importance...
...May I call the proposed combination, for simplicity, a cartel...
...They say that the relief program receives the backing of the President, the State Department, the British Foreign Office, and important British personalities—all those in authority save Winston ChurchilL The British Premier, they claim, stubbornly opposes feeding the children...
...On the other hand, the American statement does not contain services, nor shipping...
...Knowing this and in spite of the fact that the situation in this country was very serious because of disruption of shipping and inadequacy of domestic supplies, nevertheless Titanium Pigment (National Lead) shipped 700 tons to Titan Kgyo Karsha, Ltd...
...But the Bell Testing Laboratories, after a chemical test, showed that a lot of spotty mica ranks just as high for condenser purposes as clear mica, and besides some of the clear mica doesn't meet such a test...
...But, oddly enough, this corporation name resembles that of the Colonial Mica Company...
...Military observers in Washington express complete bewilderment about the situation in the European theater of operations...
...3) American members have seen fit to aid I. G. Farben in attempting to prevent seizure of German-owned patents by the American Alien Property Custodian by the execution of specious patent assignments...
...The trial of the indictment has not been held...
...This gentleman, in fact, constituted a most interesting exhibit...
...You must have it to make good paint...
...Marshall, in his recent report, says that the United States is supplying entirely the needs of the Committee in North Africa...
...These observers also scrutinize another item—the British claim that they are supplying the French Committee of Liberation...
...The Truman Committee has held some revealing hearings on the subject of mica...
...The Senators were particularly interested in the coincidence of names...
...His multifarious activities moved Sen...
...They were wondering whether the private company wouldn't benefit from the possibility that the government company, with all its wartime powers and contacts, would bequeath to the private company of the same name some of its prestige for post-war business...
...As usual, the private interests involved may well have been acting in perfect good faith...
...Berge of the Department of Justice, "is dominated by three American corporations, the National Lead Company, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., and Titan Company, Inc...
...The Bell test has been endorsed by technicians, but the government seems to take quite a while in getting this test into wide use...
...But informed quarters in Washington believe that the responsibility lies on one person...
...Johnston, it seems, as a small business man learned the hard way when his interests collided with trusts...
...The Committee discovered that the head of the mica section of the WPB had been—not an expert on the technology of the business, nor of the production of raw mica—but a salesman for a mica fabricating company, a $l-a-year man drawing his salary from this company...
...But the absorption of the press with the highlights of the war in the theaters of actual combat has served to obscure less colorful conflicts...
...These observers claim that Germany is holding a large number of divisions in western areas...
...5) I. G. Farben as one of the leading parties of the cartel has dictated the terms upon which American members might do business...
...Among other things, they note that the British statement of reverse Lend-Lease includes "services," among them shipping which runs to approximately 40 per cent of the total of reverse Lend-Lease claimed by the British...
...If it shows spots or imperfections, they reject it...
...it is the cartel system that is at fault...
...Titanium was badly needed in Japan and the Japanese government had not permitted any titanium pigments to be exported for a long time...
...In the face of this discouraging situation, the anti-trust advocates take hope from an unexpected quarter...
...They say that American mica has a lot of these spots...
...They discovered further that operators of mica mines in this country have been raising anguished complaints about the insufficient prices they've been getting for their product...
...Yet, the radio and radar industry needs it badly for their condensers...
...The whole purpose of the cartel is to obtain a monopoly of patents, so that no one can manufacture it (titanium) excepting the members of the cartel and so can raise the prices by reason of such monopoly to a point that would give us much more profit on our present tonnage, but also prevent a growth in tonnage that would interfere with they: greater profits in lithophone (a competing but inferior product...
...But the tale of woe of domestic producers isn't ended...
...The fight against this system, both domestic and foreign, goes on, hampered, however, by the very government that is supposed to prosecute the fight...
...This year's program requires about 150,000,000 condensers...
...Yet, the finest and most widely used of all pigments in paint is titanium dioxide...
...Eric Johnston, President of the Chamber of Commerce, and potential candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination, has recently launched an attack on cartels...
...Government Hampers Fight The most arresting incident in this picture concerns Japan...
...Mr...
...For, the Anti Trust division of the Department of Justice charges that its use has been restricted because of the monopolistic control exercised over it by a worldwide cartel...
...Today, it comes to around $250,000,000 a month...
...In some parts of the country, they could not get equipment for their mines...
...Calling It By Its Right Name Titanium ores have as recondite a sound for the average layman as mica...
...Berge describes the incident, as follows: "Because of German participation in the Japanese Titanium Company, the British government refused to permit titanium from Travancore, India, to be exported to Japan in the Fall and Winter of 1940-41...
...For, it seems, he sold equipment to the government company of which he was a servant...
...While the United States government buys and uses enormous quantities of paint in peacetime, it purchases in wartime by far the greater portion of paint manufactured in the whole country...
...In another statement, he says, "I do not attack, nor do I intend to cast inferences against the patriotic-motives of any men or companies...
...Serving Two Masters The small domestic producers had another complaint...
...Those who have examined the British statement of reverse Lend-Lease and the President's statement on this situation find the information most unsatisfactory...
...Berge does not impugn the patriotic motives of American firms in such cases...
...But it doesn't seem surprising that domestic production has suffered when the government direction has been in the hands of individuals who have no knowledge of, nor interest in, the problems of production...
...If these two statements are correct, then the British are supplying only the negligible portion of the Committee's needs, in Syria, Madagascar, etc...
...Titanium is the ninth most abundant element in the earth...
...2) American members of the cartel are placed in a position where they have felt obliged to help the Japanese evade the British embargo...
...Because the public little understands the significance of certain materials, because perspiring Senators toil in committee rooms through masses of complicated and technical material with few results eligible for headlines, this does not call for their dusty death in forgotten archives...
...you do not have to go back to the Bible...
...The gentlemen of the private company, on the witness stand, just couldn't remember how the two names got mixed up...
...Oddly enough, also, the head of the Colonial Mica Corporation (the government-created agency) was the president of the Colonial Mica Company, the private firm...
...Hence the Department of Justice charges: "(1) Titanium has been priced exorbitantly and its use restricted because of the monopolistic control exercised over it by a worldwide cartel...
...For instance, many German divisions remain idle in the Po Valley of Italy...
...In fact, one of the officials of this cartel has come clean in the most surprising manner...
...Similarity' Of Names The classic pattern of such cases appears again in mica as in other substances...
...These conflicts concern not only the efficiency of the prosecution of the war, but also the efficiency of American business in peace time...
...The mica imported from India is "clear" mica and the fabricators and sellers in this country have always claimed it is the best, because they test it by merely looking at it...
...and (6) the fact that du Pont, Imperial Chemical Industries, and I. G. Farben are also members of other cartels, such as that involving dye-stuffs, makes their control of a fine pigment such as titanium the more objectionable...
...We await the appearance of the verdict, in the shape of a forthcoming Truman Committee report...
...on Mar...
Vol. 7 • November 1943 • No. 47
