THE YEAR'S HIGHLIGHTS Chapter One Fiscal 1955 brought to fruition the new policies and planning of the previous 15 months. It saw significant results of the Commission's reorganization. While the most conspicuous actions were the launching of an investigation into the rising trend of corporate mergers and an attack on misleading advertising of health and accident insurance companies, the Commission's new vitality was evidenced in the performance of all of its functions. At the year's end, sharp increases had been achieved in the number of investigations undertaken and completed, more complaints and orders had been issued in both antimonopoly and antideceptive cases than for the average of the previous 10 years, and long and unprecedented strides had been taken in policing compliance with previous orders. Perhaps even more important was the Commission's determination to serve more effectively as a guide to business. By issuing opinions with each Commission order, the Commission's casework achieved a prophylactic value far greater than the effect of the restraints put on the particular firms involved. Supplementing this effort was the Commission's broad program for achieving voluntary compliance with those laws designed to insure fair competition in business. Here a 20-year high in the number of trade practice rules issued by the Commission to guide industry was reached. A significant development in the Commission's program to advise and assist business in obtaining the full protection of the laws of fair competition was the creation of a Small Business Division. Here for the first time in Commission history, small-business men could avail themselves of help from attorneys most familiar with their problems and within an organizational unit designed for that purpose. During the fiscal year, the Division received 1,021 requests for help, of which 971 were completed, the rest being in varying stages of progress. In addition, more than 300 conferences were held. The Commission's attack on delay in the handling of casework contributed importantly to the Commission's overall effectiveness. The phrase: "Delay is the worst enemy of administrative law," became virtually a slogan. It motivated an internal speedup embracing not only the Commission itself but supervisors along the assembly line of case development. The staff, aware that the Commission had disciplined itself against prolonged delay in acting on cases, no longer could indulge in time-consuming and needless formality. For example, fully half of the procedural steps in the progress of an investigation to the point of recommendation for issuance of complaint were eliminated at no real cost in efficiency. At the end of the fiscal year, each Bureau director summarized the effects of the speedup of that portion of staff work under his supervision. In the Bureau of Investigation, Director Harry A. Babcock reported an increase of almost 50 percent in the number of investigations completed. In the antimonopoly field alone, 537 investigations were completed as contrasted with 363 in 1953 and 343 in 1954. At the same time, this Bureau referred 21 violations of the Wool Products Labeling Act and 18 violations of the Fur Products Labeling Act to the Bureau of Litigation for formal action. In these 2 fields, more than 8,000 violations were adjusted by industry counseling and voluntary correction. During the same period, assurance of discontinuance of 231 deceptive practice matters had been obtained. This number was described by Mr. Babcock as "far in excess of any previous record." In the Commission's litigation work, a marked increase in effective action against illegal monopoly and deception in business was revealed in both complaints and orders issued. The volume of these not only was greater than in fiscal 1954 but substantially exceeded the average of the previous 10 years. Joseph E. Sheehy, Director of the Bureau of Litigation, reported that the total of 36 antimonopoly complaints in fiscal 1955 was 28.6 percent higher than for the average of the fiscal years from 1944 to 1953, and that 1955's 30 cease and desist orders showed a 40.2-percent increase over the average for the same previous period. The total of 125 deceptive practice complaints in 1955 compared with 92 in 1954 and was 49.3 percent higher than the 1944-53 average year. Deceptive practice orders totaled 82, 2 more than in 1954 and 9 percent higher than the 1944-53 average. The litigation performance becomes more impressive when the significance of the actions is considered as well as the volume. Five of the pending cases charged large corporations with violating section 7 of the Clayton Act (the Antimerger Act). "Through this litigation,” Mr. Sheehy declared, "the Commission is seeking to halt a growing trend in American industry toward mergers of formerly competing corporations or other corporate acquisitions with anticompetitive effects." The five cases are: the acquisition by Farm Journal, Inc., of its rival publication, "Better Farming," from the Curtis Publishing |