Attack on G.M.

From a publicity standpoint, Senator Joseph C. O'Mahoney's four-week investigation of General Motors was turning out to be a dismal flop. Finally, last week, Joe O'Mahoney landed his antitrust hearings on Page One. To a packed Senate hearing room he brought 14 G.M. dealers (out of 17,000) who charged that they had been badly used by G.M. Among their complaints:

P: J. Ed Travis Jr., a St. Charles, Mo. Buick, Pontiac and G.M.C. truck dealer, said that three years after he was awarded a silver tray for sales achievements, all three of his franchises were suddenly canceled. He was told that he was "a lousy dealer," he testified, because he would not pressure his neighbors into 46-month finance deals to buy "something they feel they cannot afford."

P: Two Chevrolet dealers, Sumpter Priddy Jr. of Waverly, Va. and M. L. Ward of Albany, Ga., testified that in the race for the No. 1 spot with Ford, G.M. pressured them to register as sold all cars still on the showroom floor and en route from the factory.

P: Buick-Chevrolet-Pontiac Dealer Lee Anderson of Lake Orion, Mich, said that G.M. canceled his franchise after he criticized, in a Rotary Club speech, the industry-wide practice of selling cars at cut-rate prices to company employes, thus undercutting local dealers. With $325,000 invested in his showroom and repair shop, Anderson appealed to the G.M. Dealer Relations Board, but said G.M. President Harlow Curtice told him: "You are a Red."

P: Pontiac Dealer M. H. Yager of Albany, N.Y. testified that G.M.'s "dogma of ever-gyrating production is resulting in maldistribution, forced distribution and rampant bootlegging and both unreasonable and dangerous credit practices. All the ethics, dignity and fun have gone out of the automobile business."

After three days of such charges, Curtice and Board Chairman Alfred P. Sloan Jr. appeared before the committee. "I should like to point out," said Curtice dryly, "that during the postwar period G.M. dealers have had profits before taxes of over $5 billion after deducting over $1 billion of owners' salaries and bonuses. Their investment has grown from $249 million in 1940 to over $2.2 billion today, largely from reinvested earnings." This week Curtice would have a chance to deliver his rebuttal in more detail.

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