Show U U jap washington it is entirely possible that many people have failed to piece to great wealth gether several deon grill of national import lately and may have missed the significance of an action of congress in its closing days the two incidents to which I 1 refer are the federal grand jury indictment at south bend ind of a number of automobile manufacturing executives and the action of congress in adoption of a resolution providing for a broad gauge inquiry into big business the two when pieced together er spell a sensational drive against the malefactors of great wealth the result well lets examine the ahe scheme the pattern and the prospects there was a pe period in 1936 it will be recalled when business interests felt that president roosevelt was preparing to follow a middle of the road policy as far as government relations with business was concerned during that period there was a considerable improvement in general business in that interim of time as far as any observers could reach a conclusion the president was relying on advice from many men in whom business he had d confidence but there came a sudden end out of the clear sky mr roosevelt proposed reorganization of the supreme court of the united states and the addition of six justices whom he could appoint at once through weeks of battle when it became apparent that one guess was as good as another whether the president would win business men and women again became afraid that was when the present depression began it was also the time when mr roosevelt turned away from his previous close advisers and began listening to ta the ie new brain trust which has come to be known as the board of strategy As the depression became sharper fir and the numbers of unemployed increased with startling rapidity the board of strategy sought means to offset the condition the group grou P also had to find a goat which is always done when plans go awry there followed then the vicious and intemperate attacks on big business by the trust busting robert H jackson then favored at the white house as the next democratic candidate for the new york governorship secretary ickes also let loose his vocabulary and none can deny the interior secre capacity for speaking biting words for weeks and weeks we were treated to a barrage of words in which big business was pictured as beyond the pale of good citizenry and ought to be destroyed the trust busting drive was not aa successful in gaining public acclaim as had been hoped for the truth is that it failed to get the country excited at all and the profit to the trust busters austers did not materialize as had been the case when teddy roosevelt was swinging a big stick of demagoguery in the same field of political endeavor indeed this drive flopped at the start whereas the drive by the earlier roosevelt was as good politics for several years it was here according to the best information available that the tactics changed the change in methods is the real reason for the story thus it can be said that the trust busting drive is still going on as strong as ever but it is going on in in several fields without any apparent connection because the board of strategy has lost none of its determination to convince the nation that it is being ruined by those same malefactors of great wealth toward which teddy roosevelt waved his fis fist 4 and bared his teeth now to put the pieces of the p picture ic i together the first section comprises cc the indict how houf the ment of the auto picture Looks mobile moguls edsel ford walter P chrysler alfred P sloan and william knudsen among some sixty odd officials of ford chrysler and general motors and the companies affiliated with them in the financil financing in 9 of motor cars bought on the dinst installment all plan they are charged with violation of the antitrust laws although how anybody can believe the ford interests ever could or would play ball with the other two I 1 have been unable to see anyway big news stories were carried by the press services from south bend and the department of justice here had much background information which officials were delighted to hand to any inquiring reporter they did this in order to operate cooperate co with the press inasmuch as the story was so sensational and so vast in scope that none of us writers here could possibly be permitted to miss any phase of it the other phase of the continuing drive against big business ta takes kes the form of a great inquiry thinly disguised as a general study of business practices it is a somewhat unusual type of investigation and is to be managed in a very unusual manner the committee that will do the job is made up of three senators and three representatives and a representative represent active from each of a number of executive departments and commissions and the important fact in addition is that the which the investigation will cost will be expended under the direction of president roosevelt to bring it own to simple terms when congress adopted the resolution for the inquiry the board of strategy was able to turn on enough political steam to force adoption of an amendment placing the funds under the direction of the president rather than under control of congress as usually is done when congress participates in an investigation that action means that investigators ti for the committee will be able to rely upon laws covering inquiries and searches made by the department of justice the federal trade commission the securities and exchange commission and the national labor relations board among others the combined powers will be all comprehensive to explain further the full meaning of these broad powers it is necessary to cite constitutional provisions prohibiting illegal search and seizure the investigators for the committee must be able to dig deep into private records of any bank or corporation or individual if they are to accomplish fully the desire of the board of strategy for complete exposure of all the secrets of business when they get all of those records of course they can analyze them and place their own construction on the business practices that is today by inference and innuendo hint or open charge the investigators can smear anything or anybody and the newspapers will spread the information It being an official investigation it will be followed closely by the press and as usual there will be little chance for the individuals to reply when they are marked to be smeared they will be smeared whether justly or unjustly it is a deplorable thing that our government stoops to that sort of thing but it has done so in a number of instances a 0 0 now as to the main oba objectives octives ec tives every indication is that the guiding hands in the pro hit morgan ejected and dupont tion are determined to destroy two great masses of capital I 1 mean they intend to break up the combination of men and money in in two instances the banking house of J P morgan and company and the huge industrial setup of the duponts are marked whether they like it or not those two groups are to be made the goats of the depression of 1937 38 and those on the inside recognize that it is a fight to the finish there will be other corporations other individuals individual S whose business lives will be laid bare but the morgans and the duponts are the real targets the board of strategy believes the morgan bank and the dupont interests are chiefly responsible for the refusal of business to yield on many of the crackpot ideas of the professors and so it is inevitable me those two groups will be cast as the villains there arises next the question whether such an investigation and such a prosecution as has been started at south bend will do the country any good one ought not prejudge it may be that the motor magnates and their corporations are guilty as pups it may be that the morgans and the duponts and scores of others among families with great fortunes have set about to wreck the new deal but the question in my mind is why has it not been discovered before it seems to me that it if there was so much borrup tion so much improper influence being exercised and such illegal use of moneyed power as is represented by those who were pushing the investigation it should have been several years ago mr roosevelt has been in office five years and it appears strange that there was no effort to uncover these demons until the business of the country as a whole lost confidence i in the policies of the national administration adm these developments have come along as the depression grew worse they reach their climax of preparation at a time when another federal agency the board of governors of the federal reserve system says that the industrial depression in the united states now is the worst in the world neither england nor arty any other industrial country couett y abroad has experienced a depression that has been as precipitous as the united states is experiencing the board said in an official statement the power is not given to me to determine the numerous and varied facts but the processes of deduction eliminate many possible causes tor for our nations condition most of them indeed excepting governmental meddling and the haraksin harass ha iii of business big and little 0 western newspaper union |