Page 22
— Griffin Daily News Thursday, November 21,1974
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A. T. & T. antitrust suit is filed
By GENE CARLSON
WASHINGTON (UPI) — In the largest antitrust action
ever, the government is moving to break up the Bell
System and its centerpiece, American Telephone &
Telegraph, for alledgedly monopolizing the
telecommunications business in the United States.
The Justice Department filed civil suit Wednesday in
Federal District Court here against AT&T, the world’s
largest privately held corportation, and two key
subsidiaries —Western Electric Co. Inc. and Bell
Laboratories Inc.
The government is trying to force AT&T to give up
Western Electric, its exclusive manufacturing arm, plus
some of its interstate telephone network, in order to
promote competition and possibly reduce consumer rates.
The corporation promptly served notice it would
vigorously fight the case. “We are confident we are not in
violaton of the antitrust laws and we are astonished that
the Justice Department would take its present action with
apparent disregard for its impact on the public,” said
AT&T Chairman John D. deßutts in a statement from
New York.
He said the government action “could lead to fragmen
tation of responsibility for the nation’s telephone network.
If that happens, telephone service would deteriorate and
cost much, much more.”
Beef break
to be brief
DENVER (UPI) - An
official of the American Nation
al Cattlemen’s Association says
beef prices around the country
still are going down, but the
break for consumers could be
brief.
“At present, beef and other
meats continue to be an
exception to the inflationary
trends in prices of other foods
and other consumer goods,”
Gordon Van Vleck, ANCA
president, said Wednesday.
“But if feed and other costs
remain high, eventually sup
plies will be cut back and
prices will rise.”
The ANCA, which has been
monitoring beef prices through
out the country for the past
several months, said Wednes
day its study for the period Oct.
14-Nov. 14 indicated average
bets cuts had gone down five
cents per pound.
The study, taken in 19 cities
and based on average prices of
five representative beef cuts,
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CHARTERED 1889 GRIFFIN, GEORGIA MEMBER F.D.LC. A
showed beef was selling over
the counter for $1.33 per pound
compared with $1.38 in October
and $1.63 in November 1973.
The average price of T-bone
steak dropped seven cents
during the past month and
round steak was off four cents,
the survey showed. Ground
beef, sirloin steak and chuck
roast each declined one cent
per pound.
Van Vleck stressed the ANCA
did not label the study as
definitive and it was intended
to serve only as “a timely
report of what consumers are
paying for five beef cuts on the
second Thursday of each month
in 19 cities.”
The study said highest beef
prices —all above $1.40 per
pound —were noted in Atlanta;
Baltimore; Detroit; New York;
Omaha, Neb.; and Portland,
Ore. The largest beef price
drops were reported from
Chicago, Cleveland, Houston
and Washington, D.C.
Attorney General William B. Saxbe replied: “I am fully
aware of the service that the Bell System has provided.
Nevertheless, I believe the law must be enforced.”
The case threatens to be long, complex and costly for all
parties involved. A Justice Department lawyer predicted
that the trial would not begin for at least three years. If all
avenues of appeal are used, a final decision might not
emerge until the 1980 s.
In 1949, the government brought a much narrower
antitrust suit aganst AT&T. That case was eight years in
litigation before being settled out of court.
In the present case, the three defendants are charged
with “combining and conspiring to monopolize,
attempting to monopolize and monopolizing the
telecommunications service and equipment markets” in
violation of the Sherman antitrust law.
As a result, “purchasers ... have been denied the
benefits of a free and competitive market,” the complaint
said.
Specifically, the department said AT&T had
“obstructed” other phone companies, microwave
companies, mobile phone services and satellite carriers
from linking up with the Bell networks.
The complaint also said AT&T directed most of its
customers to buy equipment from Western Electric, its
wholly owned subsidiary. The department hopes to divide
Georgia Superintendent of
Schools Jack P. Nix became
president of the Council of Chief
State School Officers (CCSSO)
at the group’s concluding
session in St. Thomas, Virgin
Islands. School chiefs from the
50 states and six extra-state
jurisdictions began their annual
conference Sunday. At a press
conference following their
Wednesday business session,
the chiefs issued policy
statements on education and the
economy, shared ac
countability.
Amtrak leader will quit his job
By DON PHILLIPS
WASHINGTON (UPI) -
Roger Lewis, Amtrak’s only
president through the faltering
3%-year revival of the passen
ger train, will resign as soon as
a successor can be found. He
told the Amtrak board of
directors Wednesday he would
quit as president and chief
executive officer, ending all
contact with the day-to-day
operations of the national
passenger train network, but
will remain a member of the
board.
He cited “personal reasons”
for his decision.
Caught between a White
House that wanted to phase out
the passenger train and a
Congress that wanted vast
expansion, Lewis was cast as
villain to advocates of public
passenger trains because of his
cautious approach to expansion.
Critics said never
believed the passenger train
could be saved until the energy
Smooth Hair
Dry hair that is washed ev
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ditioner each week as will
hair that has been color
treated.
Western Electric into two or mere competing firms in
order to provide more competition in the manufacture and
sale of telecommunications equipment.
The Justice Department stressed it was not challenging
the practice of allowing local companies to provide
exclusive telephone service in an area. Nevertheless, the
23 local Bell affiliated firms that provide the bulk of the
nation’s phone service were named as co-conspirators but
not defendants in the case.
The suit represents a tougher approach toward anti
competitive and monopolistic practices by the Ford
administration than during the term of former President
Nixon.
Ford already has asked Congress to approve stiffer
penalties for antitrust convictions and was advised at
intervals by Saxbe on progress in the AT&T matter.
AT&T has assets of more than $67 billion and, with its
operating subsidiaries, supplies more than 80 per cent of
the nation’s telephones. Through its long-lines department
it handles, at least in part, more than 90 per cent of all
interstate telephone calls.
Western Electric is an industrial giant in its own right
with sales of more than $7 billion last year.
Bell Laboratories is the nation’s largest industrial re
search organization and conducts design and
development projects for the Bell System.
crisis caused an avalanche of
new passengers, at which time
it was too late to order new
equipment and revise opera
tions to handle them.
Supporters, fewer in number,
countered that Lewis’ problems
were often not of his own
making and that he sometimes
made “near courageous”
stands to prevent both railroads
and the government from
downgrading his trains.
Reacting to congressional
pressure, a new Amtrak board,
appointed earlier this year,
already has begun a search for
a new operating officer who it
TO THOSE CONCERNED ABOUT EDUCATION IN SPALDING COUNTY:
First, I want to thank everyone who worked and supported me in the
recent Board of Education election.
In the course of the campaign I became acquainted with Yvonne
Langford and believe, because of her awareness and sincere interest, that
she will dedicate her efforts toward quality education.
Few of us voted just to win a post for a candidate, we voted to help
the children. Let’s all go back on November 26th and cast our vote for
Yvonne Langford, to help fulfill our original purpose.
My sincere thanks to all of you,
zz Jean Boggs'
(Political Advertisement)
■ was generally assumed would
! take Lewis’ place as president.
Two men have been seriously
* mentioned as possible Lewis
successors: Paul Reistrup of
the Illinois Central Gulf Rail
! road and Paul Cruikshank of
1 the U.S. Railway Association.
Lewis, 62, is a former
assistant Air Force secretary
1 and former president of Gener
> al Dynamics. Much of his
career has been in the aircraft
industry.
He became Amtrak president
shortly before May 1, 1971,
when Amtrak took over most of
: the nation’s passenger trains.
November
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