Less Oil in the Hair

The main jobs of the Federal Trade Commission are to clamp down on misleading advertising and, dig up cases of monopoly. Because it is much easier to spot a fake ad than to dig up evidence for a full-fledged antitrust suit, FTC has felt moved to skimp on its more important trustbusting job; it has recently used its august powers on such piddling tasks as telling 1) Northwestern Extract Co. to stop claiming that "Grape Sparkle" contains real grape juice, 2) a small greeting-card company to stop describing its cards as "plateless engraved," and 3) International Laboratories, Inc. to stop advertising that Moone's Emerald Oil will stop skin itch.

Such picayune tasks did not satisfy Fair Dealing ex-Senator James M. Mead and ex-Newsman John Carson, who joined the commission last fall. They wanted less soft drinks and oil in their hair, and more investigation into possible price-fixing that had eliminated competition. Last week FTC gave in to their badgering and reshuffled its bureaus. Beginning June 1, it will have a new Bureau of Restraint of Trade to concentrate on digging into "conditions which encourage monopolistic development." By catching potential monopolists early, FTC hopes to save the Department of Justice much time and work. To speed up all FTC work, the commission also gave its trial examiners authority to make their own decisions--subject to appeal and review--instead of merely recommending decisions to the commissioners.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.