Investigation of concentration of economic power; monograph no. 1[-43] (1940)

Page scan 00094 from Investigation of concentration of economic power; monograph no. 1[-43]

Record Details:

Title:
Investigation of concentration of economic power; monograph no. 1[-43]
Date:
1940
Publisher:
Washington : U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
Volume:
Investigation of concentration of economic power; monograph no. 1[-43]
Leaf #:
00094
Language:
English
Subjects:
United States -- Economic conditions 1918-1945, United States -- Economic policy
Collection:
Books and Government & Law
Format:
Books
Contributor:
Boston Public Library
Sponsor:
Kahle/Austin Foundation and Omidyar Network
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
no. 1. Price behavior and business policy -- no. 2. Families and their live insurance. A study of 2132 Massachusetts familioes and their life insurance policies -- no. 3. Who pays the taxes? -- no. 4. Concentration and composition of individual incomes, 1918-1937 -- no. 5. Industrial wage rates, labor costs and price policies -- no. 6. Export prices and export cartels (Webb-Pomerene associations) -- no. 7. Measurement of the social performance of buisness -- no. 8. Toward more housing -- no. 9. Taxation of corporate enterprise -- no. 10. Industrial concentration and tariffs -- no. 11. Bureaucracy and trusteeship in large corporations -- no. 12. Profits, productive activities and new investment -- no. 13. Relative efficiency of large, medium-sized, and small business -- no. 14. Hourly earnings of employees in large and small enterprises -- no. 15. Financial characteristics of American manufacturing corporations -- no. 16. Antitrust in action -- no. 17. Problems of small business -- no. 18. Trade association survey -- no. 19. Government purchasing-- an economic commentary -- no. 20. Taxation, recovery, and defense -- no. 21. Competition and monopoly in American industry -- no. 22. Technology in our economy -- no. 23. Agriculture and the national economy -- no. 24. Consumers standards -- no. 25. Recovery plans -- no. 26. Economic power and political pressures -- no. 27. The structure of industry -- no. 28. Study of legal reserve life insurance companies -- no. 28A. Statement on life insurance -- no. 29. The distribution of ownership in the 200 largest nonfinancial corporations -- no. 30. Survey of shareholdings in 1,710 corporations with securities listed on a national securities exchange -- no. 31. Patents and free enterprise -- no. 32. Economic standards of government price control -- no. 33. Geographical differentials in prices of building materials -- no. 34. Control of unfair competitive practices through trade practice conference procedure of the Federal trade commission -- no. 35. Large-scale organization in the food industries -- no. 36. Reports of the Federal trade commission on natural gas and natural gas pipe lines in U.S.A.-- Agricultural implement and machinery inquiry. Motor vehicle industry inquiry -- no. 37. Saving, investment, and national income -- no. 38. A study of the construction and enforcement of the federal antitrust laws -- no. 39. Control of the petroleum industry by major oil companies -- no. 39A. Review and criticism on behalf of Standard Oil Co. (New Jersey) and Sun Oil Co. of Monograph no. 39 with rejoinder by monograph author -- no. 40. Regulation of economic activities in foreign countries -- no. 41. Price discrimination in steel -- no. 42. The basing point problem -- no. 43. The motion picture industry-- a pattern of control
Date Added:
July 19, 2022
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78 CONCENTRATION OF ECONOMIC POWER released by a distributor. At the same time, it may be assumed that the distributor will try to use a good picture of proved box-office merit to ''carry" four others that lack sufficient appeal to sell themselves. Moreover, it is probable that even such cancelation privileges as the exhibitor previously received will be eliminated by this method of selling. It is true that section VII of the decree provides machinery for cancelation of certain pictures, but only on the grounds that they are generally offensive on moral, racial, or religious grounds in the particular localities in which the theaters are located, and only then after an arbitration hearing, if this is requested by the distributor. There is thus a real question as to whether the ability of the exhibi- tor to select exactly tJiose pictures he desires will be materially improved by this method of marketing. It is because of this that the decree has been uniformly opposed by the groups interested in im- proving the moral standards of film entertainment. The provision has another feature which exhibitors consider undesirable. It will be remembered that continuity of film supply is an important factor to each exhibitor, and that the exhibitor generally does not oppose block booking as such but only its compulsory aspects. This provision, exhibitors fear, will jeopardize the con- tinuous flow of product on which stable operation depends. The independent exhibitor associations which appeared before the Court before the decree was entered attacked the blocks-of-five provision principally for this reason, and stated that an unrestricted 20 percent cancelation privilege would be far more useful to them. The exact effect which this method of sale will have on film prices is uncertain. Films will now be sold not only in the fall when attendance is high, but also during the box-office doldrums in the summer and in Lent. Also, the distributor will be impelled to make contracts promptly after previewing, since the price of features tends to decline with time. Moreover, with greater control of their playing time exhibitors may feel more free to fill in with occasional satisfactory independent productions. By shrewd trading exhibitors may be able to improve their position. On the other hand, the distributor may use uncertainty regarding future film supply to drive a hard bargain with the exhibitor. It is also quite probable that this method of selling will to some extent increase sales expense and that this will be reflected in higher prices. There is one definite result. The independent exhibitor has com- plained that because of having to purchase the full output of several distributors, he occasionally has been required to license more features during the year than actually needed to operate his theater. Under the present system the exhibitor cannot be confronted at the end of the season with a bill for a number of unplayed, unpaid for features except as a result of his own actions. Sections III and IV (a) are considerably weakened by an escape clause (sec. XII) which, depending on a number of eventualities, relieves the five major companies from these restrictions after August 31, 1942. In the first place, these sections will become inoperative if, before June 1, 1942, the three other defendants in the suit— Columbia, Universal, and United Artists—are not subject to similar conditions. If any difl'erent conditions are imposed on these three companies, any one of the five ittajor companies may elect to observe similar restrictions, if it so desires.