Show Throwing Monkey Wrenches Wr Into Geneva Disposal Issue Reports from Washington have bave it that the old steel trust bugaboo is being raised again by certain people in an effort to block sale ale of the Geneva steel plant to the United States Steel corporation corporation-an an action which might well mean blocking entirely disposal of the plant and its conversion to peacetime operation Wendell Berge assistant attorney general reportedly has prepared a lengthy opinion holding bolding that sale of Geneva to U. U S. S Steel would be a violation of the antitrust law and therefore I under terms of the surplus property act an illegal sale This opinion like th the gratuitous opinion given by Attorney General Biddle last year before he le left office is jumping the gun on on norm normal p procedure Properly the justice department should not concern itself with Geneva's disposal until the war assets administration administration administration admin admin- has bas completed ted its analysis of the bids and presented its ch choice ice as to the best bidder to th the justice department This makes both Biddles Biddle's unsolicited opinion and Berges Berge's pr premature mature opinion opinion opinion ion an apparent deliberate attempt to throw a monkey wrench Into the Geneva disposal issue One cannot help wondering what political or financial motives are arc back of these deliberate attempts t to interfere with Geneva di disposal Biddles Biddle's unsolicited opinion last year definitely delayed efforts to dispose of the plant because it resulted in the with withdrawal of U. U S. S Steel Does Berge now to want to interfere with dis disposal disposal disposal dis- dis I of Geneva Z If so why Dont Don't these men want Geneva to operate It certainly looks like it not it-not not so much because their op opinions are unfavorable vo able to U. U S. S Steel as because their gratuitous gratuitous tous lous or pre premature opinions were given at a time best calculated to throw monkey wrenches into the disposal machinery It is difficult to understand the reasoning back of the Biddle-Berge Biddle opinions that United States Steel corporation is a monopoly and that the award of Geneva to the company would violate the antitrust act and the provisions of the surplus properly property property prop prop- erty erly act In the first place the steel corporation at the thc first of this year controlled less than han a third of the steel-making steel capacity of the nation Even with Geneva it would control only per cent of the over-all over capacity That certainly doesn't sou sound d like monopoly I In ii the second place place- U. U S. S S Steel el is in fact less of a steel monopoly today than it was prior to the war At that time it controlled per pet cent of ot th the total steel capacity in th the nation the drop since being a result of the sale or retirement of vario various s steel-making steel facilities in the east eat owned by U. U Us S. S Steel aries In the third place the United States supreme court the final authority on interpretation of the law has ruled that the U. U S. S Steel corporation is not a monopoly monopoly and and it iJ handed down such ruling at a time tune when the corporation controlled a larger share of the steel capacity of the nation than it controls now or will control if it acquires Geneva It should be remembered that we have federal laws on the statute books designed to control monopolies and make possible governmental action to break up any trusts trusts' which exist If u U. U S. S Steel is or should become a monopoly the government at any anytime anytime anytime time can take action against it One other point concerning this monopoly issue is worthy of consideration Today there is not only plenty of competition within the steel industry itself but there is a highly competitive situation relative to use of steel as opposed to other metals such as aa aluminum and magnesium and to new plastics There Ther could not be avery very vicious monopoly in steel because steel has to fight for i its place jn national markets with these new ew competitors Governor Maw in commenting on this premature Berge report said it smacks of maneuvering of some kind that the issue of monopoly should be raised at this time in this p particular matter That is we think a very significant comment There is something back of these thes attempts to toss monkey wrenches into the Geneva disposal problem Just what's back of it we dont don't know but we do know it is very definitely not in the interest of successful peacetime Geneva operation and it is not in the Interest of Utah's future progress and prosperity |