COMMITTEE PLANS MONOPOLY INQUIRY
Special to the New York Times
Organizes and Discusses for Two Hours General Phases of Its Program
WASHINGTON — After several futile attempts to marshal Its twelve members, the Joint Congressional-Departmental Committee to study monopoly and the concentration of economic power organized today and laid out a preliminary plan of activity. This did not touch, however, on what industries should be investigated.
The committee, with all members present and voting unanimously n each motion, elected Senator O’Mahoney, Democrat, of Wyoming, as chairman, and Representative Sumners, Democrat, of Texas, as vice chairman. These two sponsored in their houses the resolutions directing the inquiry, requested in April by President Roosevelt.
On motion of Mr. Sumners the committee elected Leon Henderson, economic adviser of the Works Progress Administration, as executive secretary. Mr. Henderson, whose appointment had been forecast, will handle routine and coordinate the activities of the Congressional and department members, Mr. O’Mahoney explained.
Pairings Are Planned
To further this cooperation the committee, on motion of Isidor Lubin, representing the Labor Department, decided that each Congressional member will be paired with a departmental member. Under this arrangement, Mr. O’Mahoney said, each pair would always be cognizant of what was being done in any phase of the investigation. When the committee meets again Thursday, the six departmental members will each make suggestions as to the type and scope of information his agency may be able to furnish to the committee.
Mr. O’Mahoney reported that today’s discussion, which lasted nearly two hours, covered in general terms the scope of the investigation and the methods of procedure. He said that it seemed to be the general opinion that public hearings would be held after the committee found out what data it could not get otherwise. The public hearings might begin around the first of September, he added.
In response to inquiries, he declared that in today’s discussion no specific industry was mentioned for investigation. Before the session, however, Senator Borah, one of the three Senate members, told reporters that he believed an investigation of the oil industry should be an important part of the committee’s work on the ground that gasoline prices were being increased “by the same fellows they prosecuted up in Wisconsin.”
Borah Demands Jailings
”A fine doesn’t do any good,” he added. “We ought to stick them in jail. There’s too much sitting down around the table and agreeing on prices.”
Senator O’Mahoney said that he expected the committee to operate as a unit, despite the pairing of the members. One of the first jobs, he declared, would be to select a staff. There was an armful of applications for staff places, he said.
Some comments came fro newspaper men as to “who will watch whom” in the pairing of the two groups. Only one of the Congressional members, Representative Eicher of Iowa, is an outright New Dealer, but all except possibly one of the departmental group are thus classified.
Besides those mentioned, the Congressional members are Senator King, Democrat, of Utah, and Representative Reece, Republican, of Tennessee.
The departmental members, in addition to Mr. Lubin, are Assistant Attorney General Thurman W. Arnold; Herman W. Oliphant, Treasury general counsel; Richard C. Patterson Jr., Assistant Secretary of Commerce; Garland S. Ferguson, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission; and W. O. Douglas, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
[^1] “COMMITTEE PLANS MONOPOLY INQUIRY; Organizes and Discusses for Two Hours General Phases of Its Program Pairings Are Planned Borah Demands Jailings.” Special to The New York Times. July 2, 1938.