After the Great Conspiracy

General Electric's Chairman Ralph J. Cordiner last week gave his verdict on the great price-rigging conspiracy in the electrical equipment industry. Before a packed $7-a-plate dinner meeting of the New York Society of Security Analysts, he said: "We don't think anybody's been damaged."

Cordiner said he had talked to more than a score of Government officials and officers of private utility companies that had been victims of the nine-year-long bid-rigging conspiracy by G.E., Westinghouse and 27 other companies, and "I've yet to encounter the first man who said, 'Cordiner, we've got a complaint, we've been damaged.' We intend to resist. It will be a neat problem to prove damages." Of course, he went on. "if we've unwittingly damaged any customer anywhere, we wish to make an adjustment." He cited a rash of suits that followed G.E.'s 1949 antitrust conviction for monopolizing electric bulbs. The suits, which totaled $104 million, were settled for $1,395,000. Just in case things go against G.E. Treasurer John D. Lockton told the meeting, the giant electric company at the end of 1960 had cash assets totaling more than $400 million. "We are in excellent financial condition to take care of anything that we see happen," he said. G.E. stock, which had fallen $7. regained more than $4.

The University of Massachusetts quietly dropped a plan to award Cordiner an honoris causa degree. In Washington, Commerce Secretary Luther Hodges asked his Business Advisory Council to decide whether Cordiner should remain on as chairman. In Norristown, Pa., William S. Ginn, who has retained both his G.E. title (vice president) and salary ($125.000) despite his conviction in the conspiracy case, was dressed in the blue denims of Montgomery County prison, his address for 30 days.

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