 It's time for the Lawn Jean Chronoscope. A television journal of the important issues of the hour brought to you every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. A presentation of the Lawn Jean Wittner Watch Company. Maker of Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Lawn Jean. Good evening. This is Frank Knight. May I introduce our co-editors for this edition of the Lawn Jean Chronoscope? From the CBS television news staff, Larry Lassur and Charles Collingwood. Our distinguished guest for this evening is Edward Howre, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. Mr. Howre, I understand that the Federal Trade Commission is charged by law to prevent the stifling or fettering of the free enterprise system by monopoly, or to save it from corruption by unfair trade practices, but what are your general activities? Well, Mr. Lassur, we have jurisdiction which staggers the imagination. We should be, and I believe will be, the most vital agency in Washington. We supervise the competitive practices of our multi-billion dollar economy. In other words, we supervise and regulate business, and as you know, business in this country is really a thing of enormous magnitude. Mr. Howre, your commission is now undertaking an investigation of the price of coffee. Is that a good sample of the kind of work which you do? Yes, I think it is. It's the type of thing that we normally get into when there are consumer complaints. We had numerous consumer complaints. So how are you coming on that? Have you found out why it is that coffee costs us 15 cents a cup now instead of 10? No, we haven't found that out yet, and I don't know what we will find out. We're making a very fair, honest, objective investigation within the continental United States to ascertain what the situation is with reference to coffee prices, what the supply and demand situation is, whether prices are related to demand. There has been some suggestion that high coffee prices are not related to demand, that demand is inelastic, that you drink your 10 cups of coffee every day, no matter what you have to pay for them. But we're going to ascertain the facts and publish them in an economic report, and one thing that I would like to make clear, very clear, is that we're not investigating any activity outside of the United States. We have no jurisdiction to do that. We're investigating corporations and persons and documents and files and offices within this country. I've been told, Mr. Howry, that letters have been coming into the Federal Trade Commission's office ever since you started the investigation of some health and insurance plans. Is that an outstanding violation? Well, that gets into our jurisdiction over advertising. We not only have jurisdiction over price fixing and price discrimination and things of that nature, but we also supervise advertising practices. And we received many complaints that some of the claims, the benefits claimed for certain policies were exaggerated, were misleading, were false. And we're conducting a general investigation of all disability and insurance programs to ascertain whether they are claiming benefits for their policies that are not, in fact, within the confines of the policies. Mr. Chairman, while you're on the subject, I'd like to ask you that since your jurisdiction does bear on misleading advertising, do you have any trouble with commercials on radio or TV? Well, I don't know whether I should answer that on this program, but I'm compelled to say yes we do. We have just as much activity and violation in that field as we do in the press. There's one field where the radio and the press and the television can, I think, claim equality. Well, you won't have any trouble on this program, Mr. Chairman. Well, if you investigate all these things and have jurisdiction over them, where does your jurisdiction and that of the Department of Justice take off? Well, we've been accused of being overlapping agencies, but we're not, in fact, overlapping agencies. We deal with the same subject. That is, when you refer to the Department of Justice, you refer, I assume, to the antitrust division of the Department of Justice. We deal with the same subject matter. We deal with monopoly, restraint of trade, price-fixing, unfair methods of competition. But the Department of Justice is primarily the prosecutor, whereas the Federal Trade Commission is an administrative agency composed of economists, marketing experts, lawyers, statisticians. We examine these practices in their incipiency. We are not a prosecutor. Our job is not to punish. Our job is to try to prevent unfair methods of competition. I like to say we practice preventive law. We do have our adversary proceedings, of course, but we deal with these questions, not as a prosecutor, but as a body of experts. At least that's what Congress called us. And we examine the practices to ascertain whether the competition has been injured. If, for example, we examined a merger here recently in the automobile field, and they were very small companies, and we felt that that merger would increase competition, would promote competition, because it enabled the merge company to have a more complete line and complete compete better with the big companies. In another merger case, we examined the competitive effects and all the marketing factors, and we decided just the contrary, that competition was lessened and that the merger should not be permitted. So it's not the action, it's not the activity, it's the effect that we look at and try to analyze, and if we think it's bad for the economy, we stop it by a cease and desist order if we think it is good for the economy while we leave it alone. Actually, sir, do you have enough funds and manpower to see that your cease and desist orders are being obeyed? Well, that's one of our big problems. We have, outstanding, 4,500 cease and desist orders against corporations in this country. We have 8,400 stipulations to cease and desist, which is a voluntary procedure we have to try to stop unfair methods of competition, and we have 180 trade practice rules, which are rules which an industry adopt as sort of their, I don't like to call it a code because it has no resemblance at all to the NRA days, but it is a set, they consist of a set of rules which govern the industry, but they're voluntary. The stipulations are voluntary and the rules, trade practice rules are voluntary procedures where we try to persuade business to sort of discipline itself. Well, Mr. Chairman, under the previous administration of the Federal Trade Commission, there were charges that the Justice Department was driving against business because it was big, and now there are charges that you are protecting big business. What is your view on that? Well, I think the statement is wrong, but let me put it this way. The Federal Trade Commission has supervision over small, middle size and big business, but we do not look at size or anything of that nature. We look and see what they've done and what the effect is on our economy, what the effect on the consumer is, what the effect on the competitor is, and we try not to have phobias. We try to be objective and judicial and fair in the examination of these things, and if you start calling something big, why then you have to relate it to the industry involved, maybe big in one industry and the same capital or the same size might be very small in another. So I am sure that the present Federal Trade Commission is going to treat big business and small business and middle size business with the same fair objectivity and honesty. Well, Mr. Chairman, I ask you as a final question, do you think that you're going to give more weight to the business facts of life, or are you going to stick strictly to the letter of the laws that you must administrate? Well, we're going to be very realistic, and I think I can only answer that by repeating, that we're going to examine all economic factors and find out what the effect of the particular practice may be, and if we think that it's going to be injurious, we'll try to stop it as vigorously as we know how, but we're not going to presume that it's injurious without examining all the factors. And you don't think, sir, that there is a tendency towards concentration of big business in the country? The Federal Trade Commission is now making a study of concentration, and I think our study will show that from 1935 to 1950 there's been a slight increase in concentration. Because the 200 largest corporations have a one or two greater percent of the total business than they had in 1935. But if you break that down into the largest 10 or the largest 20 or the largest 50, it'll show that there's been a very little increase in concentration during that 15-year period. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We're proud to have you here tonight. The opinions you've heard our speakers express tonight have been entirely their own. The editorial board for this edition of the Laun Jean Chronoscope was Larry LeSere and Charles Collingwood. Our distinguished guest was Edward Howre, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. A priceless attribute of every Laun Jean watch is pride of possession, because it brings to its owner the satisfaction of knowing that he owns the watch of highest prestige among the finest watches of the world. Yes, a Laun Jean watch brings you more than the delight of a beautiful possession, more than the unsurpassed timekeeping of a remarkable watch, for that Laun Jean watch of yours is the one and only world's most honored watch. Only Laun Jean among the finest watches of the world has won 10 World's Fair Grand Prizes, 28 gold medals, highest honors from government observatories, and a position of preference in sports, aviation, and in science. For Easter, for graduation, an anniversary, a birthday, for any important gift occasion, no other name on a watch means so much as Laun Jean. And yet, unbelievably, you may buy and own or proudly give a Laun Jean watch for as little as $71.50. Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, the world's most honored gift, premier product of the Laun Jean Wittner Watch Company, since 1866, maker of watches of the highest character. We invite you to join us every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening at this same time for the Laun Jean Chronoscope, a television journal of the important issues of the hour, broadcast on behalf of Laun Jean, the world's most honored watch, and Wittner, distinguished companion to the world-honored Laun Jean. This is Frank Knight, reminding you that Laun Jean and Wittner watches are sold and service from coast to coast by more than 4,000 leading jewelers who proudly display this emblem, agency for Laun Jean Wittner watches. 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