Wanted: a Definition

The subject of cartels had U.S. citizens galloping off in all directions last week:

P: Sun Oil President J. Howard Pew attacked the Anglo-American oil agreement as a cartel. "What is this," cried he, "but a cartel? Such arrangements in international trade are exactly what we call at home monopolistic practices or combinations in restraint of trade."

P: Ohio's Senator Robert Taft also attacked the oil agreement. Said he: "While one department of the Administration was cracking down on cartels, another was setting up what might be the biggest cartel of all time."

P: Returning from three weeks in Europe, Maury Maverick demanded a law to outlaw the participation of U.S. firms in international cartels. Almost in the same breath he suggested that "selling pools" be formed to permit smaller firms to engage in the export business.

P: Clark H. Minor, president of the International General Electric Co., Inc., testifying before a House subcommittee, defended cartels as a logical development of international trade. President Minor said he knew of "no bad cartels."

P:John W. White, president of Westinghouse Electric International Co., asked: "Is there a common acceptance of a definition of what the word cartel means?"

P:Also troubled by the need for a precise definition, the Foreign Policy Association plumped for an international tribunal to supervise commodity agreements. The Association, implying that there was a need for such cartels, argued that proper supervision "would go far to correct some of the abuses with which the private industrial agreement is now charged."

P:Writing for Thought, Fordham University Quarterly, Authors Frederick Haussman and Daniel Ahearn explained why cartels are causing such a stir. They estimated that 42% of the world's trade between 1929 and 1937 was controlled by cartels, then predicted: "International cartels will increase in size, number and power in the postwar period."

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