AN AMERICAN ALTERNATIVE
An American Alternative REP. JERRY VOORHIS, the progressive Democrat from California, expressed the forebodings of countless Americans last week when he warned that continued Government failure to...
...The exertion of this sort of pressure has been successful in the overwhelming majority of cases, with the result that monopoly charges against hundreds of corporations have been shelved and are gathering dust for the duration at least...
...He did this by getting up during a speech in London and announcing that it is the "destiny" of the English and American peoples to rule the world...
...GEORGE S. PATTON has extended the field of his operations...
...A significant accompaniment of Administration policy in delaying action on these cases was the President's recommendation for a slash in the appropriation for the Anti-Trust Division...
...This move confirmed a warning issued in The Progressive last Winter by Sen...
...Designed to prevent the Government's war plants from falling into the hands of monopolies, this bill would: 1. Forbid the sale of Government plants under conditions that the Justice Department or the Smaller War Plants Corporation found would foster monopoly...
...There may be many details in the Voorhis legislation which would have to be adjusted to provide a completely workable bill, but we believe that here is a constructive, forward-looking, thoroughly American alternative to at least some phases of the reconversion plan cooked up by the Messrs...
...Once he was content to slap the face of a sick soldier...
...Calling for a program of publicly-owned plants in industries where monopolies are inevitable—such as public utilities—Rep...
...When their firm is indicted, the big boys go to the War or Navy Department or the Maritime Commission, bluster about how badly they're needed and how severely production will be curtailed if they have to appear as court witnesses...
...Slap Happy LIEUT...
...Everyone knows that the world is sick, but sane people know, too, it cannot be cured by Patton medicine...
...This is doubtless what Rep...
...Homer T. Bone, progressive Democrat of Washington, that the Government is "starving the Anti-Trust Division of the Department of Justice for lack of funds...
...VOORHIS put his finger on the crux of the whole monopoly-cartel issue when he said: "Monopoly cannot eat its cake and have it too...
...The Roosevelt Administration repeatedly has displayed a curious reluctance to prosecute cartels and monopolies, ostensibly because the high-priced executives of the offending corporations could not spare the time to testify in court...
...3. Authorize retention by the Government of plants and facilities suitable only to the manufacture of arms and ammunitions...
...Voorhis had in mind last week when he revealed in Congress that "tremendous pressure" is being brought on the Justice Department to prevent prosecution of the anti-monopoly suit against E. I. du Pont De Nemours Company and Imperial Chemical Industries of Great Britain...
...Recently he outdid himself by slapping the faces of all the Russians, all the Chinese, all the Free French, all the Scandinavians, Czechs, Belgians, Hollanders, and South Americans...
...2. Provide for Government ownership of plants where their sale would foster monopoly, with leases to private operators under conditions preventing monopoly practices...
...The procedure for stalling and preventing Government anti-trust action has followed a uniform pattern...
...Voorhis introduced a bill which deserves the thoughtful consideration of all progressive-minded Americans...
...It cannot demand freedom from governmental control in the name of free enterprise which monopoly itself by its very existence destroys...
...The California progressive did not content himself with merely attacking monopolies...
...For full and unlimited production is the only means of increasing real wealth...
...JERRY VOORHIS, the progressive Democrat from California, expressed the forebodings of countless Americans last week when he warned that continued Government failure to prosecute cartels and monopolies would result in a return to scarcity economics after the war, with its inevitable toll in unemployment, strangulation of small and independent business enterprises, and general impoverishment of the nation...
...The philosophy of scarcity which is inherent in monopoly can have only one result in the long run— impoverishment of the nation...
...As a formula for, perpetuating world wars, nothing could be more effective than a program of Anglo-American imperialism...
...These implied threats give the brass hats the jitters, and soon pressure is brought on the White House and the Department of Justice to "lay off" in the interests of the war effort...
...Baruch, Hancock, and Byrnes...
Vol. 8 • May 1944 • No. 19
