joining the staff of ACS Publications he held positions in research departments of industrial companies. In 1952, after he had moved from IÙEC to C&EN, he transferred to the news bureau in Chicago and then went to C&EN's San Francisco office. He became head of the San Francisco news bureau in 1955. Late in 1956 he returned to the Washington central staff to become news editor of C&EN. He became assistant managing editor in 1957.
industry such a comparison between the top four and the second four is a standoff, according to C&EN calculations. In 1967, the latest year for which complete data are available, the top four—Du Pont, Union Carbide, Monsanto, and Dow—shared 35% of the industry's sales and had a joint productivity, in terms of sales per employee, of $28,200. The second four—Allied Chemical, Celanese, American Cyanamid, and Herculeshad 16% of the market and the same productivity of $28,200.
ANTITRUST POLICY:
Vigorous Action Needed At a National Industrial Conference Board meeting in New York City earlier this month, two of the new administration's most influential antitrusters left no doubt as to their conviction of the need for vigorous and continued action by the Government in the antitrust area. Richard W. McLaren, assistant attorney general, antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice, told the meeting that his division will be looking very hard at reciprocity arrangements. He feels that when carried out by large diversified companies, reciprocity programs substitute buying power considerations for normal and accepted ways of selling based on price, quality, and service. This has "foreclosure effects on smaller or less diversified companies." On a somewhat more theoretical plane, Dr. Willard F. Mueller, director of the Bureau of Economics of the Federal Trade Commission, tackled those critics who insist that restricting company mergers on antitrust grounds is an economically harmful policy because modern technology demands high concentration and hence very large firms for production efficiency, innovation, and invention. Dr. Mueller says the economies of scale exlain only a small part of industrial concentration. The government economist also argues with a 1969 NICB report that concludes, among other things, that, in almost all cases, the top four companies of an industry have higher rates of productivity than the other companies in the same industry. According to Dr. Mueller, this is not a valid comparison. Dr. Mueller suggests that a more meaningful productivity comparison is between the top four and the second four of an industry. When this is done, he says, any apparent superiority of the top four disappears and in about one third of the industries checked the second four exceed the first four in productivity. In the case of the basic chemical
McClaren Mueller Antitrusters in action
ACQUISITIONS:
The Goodrich Rebellion After facing several setbacks, B. F. Goodrich seems to be making some headway in its struggle against a takeover bid by Northwest Industries, a Chicago holding company (C&EN, Jan. 27, page 17). In a rapid sequence of events making corporate business seem more like a game of Monopoly, BFG acquired Gulf Oil's half of Goodrich-Gulf Chemicals, bought a trucking company, won court approval for an early meeting of shareholders, and got support from the United Rubber Workers. Last month Northwest had temporarily blocked BFG's attempt to become sole owner of Goodrich-Gulf while seeking a preliminary injunction which would completely void the Goodrich-Gulf transaction (C&EN, Feb. 24, page 21). However, a U.S. district court in Chicago denied Northwest's request with the result that 700,000 BFG shares were put into Gulf Oil's friendly hands, in effect considerably diluting Northwest's holdings in BFG. The rubber company threw in another roadblock for Northwest when early this month it acquired Motor Freight Corp., an Indiana trucking firm, for 55,415 shares of BFG common stock. The Interstate Commerce Commission, which regulates both motor carriers and railroads, opposes a railroad owning a truck line, and one of Northwest's principal assets is the Chicago and North Western Railway. Thus, Northwest could face lengthy ICC hearings before continu-
Corporate Monopoly game BFG buys a trucking company ing its takeover attempt. However, Northwest says it wants no part of the trucking business and would transfer Motor Freight to an independent trustee if it gained control of BFG. Then last week a Chicago court denied Northwest's request to delay BFG's annual meeting, which had been moved up to March 25 from April 15. BFG had moved up the meeting, it says, for shareholders to approve a number of measures that would make any takeover bids difficult. Northwest sought the delay to give it time to communicate with BFG shareholders. The United Rubber Workers, rarely on the side of management, seemed to lend moral support to BFG management when URW president Peter Bommarito said that "Because of the loopholes in our present laws and regulations, this conglomerate is able to wheel and deal in a manner that is a definite threat to the well-being and job security of the workers."
DIVERSIFICATION:
More for Consumers No chemical company has its eye trained more squarely on the consumer than W. R. Grace. The firm was one of the very first to integrate forward toward the home owner. It's still moving that way. Grace already spreads a tent covering such diverse activities as beer, potato chips, chocolate, frozen foods, shoes, and apparel. In the past few months, the firm has decided to process shrimp in Brazil, acquire National MARCH 17, 1969 C&EN
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