Lost Momentum

In the statement that touched off the season's cascade of antitrust suits, Attorney General Thomas Campbell Clark had called for jail sentences for those who "conspire to maintain or increase present prices." Ever since, the antitrust division's 160 lawyers have been working overtime filing charges against leaders of the rubber, brake-lining, color film and oil industries (TIME, Sept. 1). All were accused of conspiracy to fix prices.

As the crusade swung into its third week, the antitrust division had lost none of its fervor but some of its bounce. It brought action against the National Association of Real Estate Boards and its local Washington chapter, charged them with fixing brokerage fees and thereby contributing to the high cost of houses. But the charge did not carry any threat of jail sentences.

Criminal proceedings were brought only against the associations, which cannot serve a prison term; officers of the associations, who conceivably could, were named in a civil suit only. Despite such dove-roaring, however, Washington expected the flow of indictments to continue. For Tom Clark's crusade was so patently political that almost every businessman could expect some accusation of one sort or another before next year's election.

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission was quietly gathering material on another form of price-fixing. Prominent in the commission's reports to Congress are the various "fair trade" laws passed by the states to protect small businessmen from undercutting by their larger competitors. New York last week provided a fertile field for the commission's study. Fixing of retail liquor prices, which had been permissible in the State of New York, became mandatory. After Sept. 1, customers would have to pay $6.10 for some brands of whiskey which the week before many stores had sold for $4.99.

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