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MONOPOLIES

In the view of Attorney General Francis Biddle and the Antitrust Division of his Department of Justice, the fact that General Electric Co., like other U.S. industries, was hip-deep in the problems of war production had nothing much to do with the case. Last week, the busy Biddle-men added a Government suit to G.E.'s frazzling production worries.

The charge: that G.E. and its subsidiary, International General Electric Co., Inc., have conspired for many years to restrain trade through cartel agreements with six foreign firms. Allegedly violated were the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Wilson Tariff Act, which applies many Sherman Act provisions to foreign trade.

In the current Department of Justice's fashion of trying the suit first in the newspapers, Assistant Attorney General Wendell Berge got off a quick statement to bulwark his boss: "The present suit is one of a series . . . to eliminate the effect of cartels on the American economy. . . . The fact that British, French, German, Japanese, Belgian and Italian, as well as American, companies are involved indicates the scope of the alleged conspiracy and the importance of the Government's action."

What to Do? While waiting for the trial to begin (in Newark, N.J.'s Federal Court), there was not much G.E. could do but issue a counterstatement over the signature of G.E. President Charles E. Wilson, just returned from his government job as Vice Chairman of WPB. Its gist:

General Electric planned and carried out its foreign agreements under the guidance of eminent legal counsel. .. . Among them: the late, great Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War in the Wilson Cabinet, and one of the great exponents of classical liberalism. Newton Baker had made a study of G.E.'s foreign contracts in 1922 (when, Francis Biddle now charges, it was violating the law). Baker's conclusion: without the contracts or some other arrangement, U.S. electrical knowledge would be denied necessary access to the advanced and valuable developments abroad.

To many an apprehensive U.S. businessman who was using German and other foreign developments to implement the fight against the Axis, the timing of Biddle's lawsuit was as hard to explain as his suits against many another big war producer--e.g., Standard Oil Co. (N.J.), E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Republic Steel Corp. About all these companies could do was to go on producing, while they waited to see what would happen next. Some of Biddle's flamboyant legal ventures--e.g., the abortive mass trial of alleged seditionists in Washington, his garishly publicized attempt to close up a Washington call-house--have come grotesque croppers. But the cartel and trade agreements suits might be more carefully handled, more determinedly pursued.

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