(a) To gather and compile information concerning, and to investigate from time to time the organization, business, conduct, practices, and management of any corporation engaged in commerce, excepting banks and common carriers subject to the Act to regulate commerce, and its relation to other corporations and to individuals, associations, and partnerships.

(b) To require, by general or special orders, corporations engaged in commerce, excepting banks, and common carriers subject to the Act to regulate commerce, or any class of them, or any of them, respectively, to file with the commission in such form as the commission may prescribe annual or special, or both annual and special, reports or answers in writing to specific questions, furnishing to the commission such information as it may require as to the organization, business, conduct, practices, management, and relation to other corporations, partnerships, and individuals of the respective corporations filing such reports or answers in writing. Such reports and answers shall be made under oath or otherwise, as the commission may prescribe, and shall be filed with the commission within such reasonable period as the commission may prescribe, unless additional time be granted in any case by the commission.

(c) Whenever a final decree has been entered against any defendant corporation in any suit brought by the United States to prevent and restrain any violation of the antitrust Acts, to make investigation, upon its own initiative, of the manner in which the decree has been or is being carried out, and upon the application of the Attorney General it shall be its duty to make such investigation. It shall transmit to the Attorney General a report embodying its findings and recommendations as a result of any such investigation, and the report shall be made public in the discretion of the commission.

(d) Upon the direction of the President or either House of Congress to investigate and report the facts relating to any alleged violations of the antitrust Acts by any corpora

tions.

(e) Upon the application of the Attorney General to investigate and make recommendations for the readjustment of the business of any corporation alleged to be violating the antitrust Acts in order that the corporation may thereafter

maintain its organization, management, and conduct of business in accordance with law.

(f) To make public from time to time such portions of the information obtained by it hereunder, except trade secrets and names of customers, as it shall deem expedient in the public interest; and to make annual and special reports to the Congress and to submit therewith recommendations for additional legislation; and to provide for the publication of its reports and decisions in such form and manner as may be best adapted for public information and use.

(g) From time to time to classify corporations and to make rules and regulations for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act.

(h) To investigate from time to time, trade conditions in and with foreign countries where associations, combinations, or practices of manufacturers, merchants, or trades, or other conditions, may affect the foreign trade of the United States, and to report to Congress thereon, with such recommendations as it deems advisable.

To enable the commission to gather any information for any of the above purposes the law gave the commission wide investigatory powers, the most important being the following:

That for the purposes of this Act the commission, or its duly authorized agent or agents, shall at all reasonable times have access to, for the purpose of examination, and the right to copy any documentary evidence of any corporation being investigated or proceeded against; and the commission shall have power to require by subpoena the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of all such documentary evidence relating to any matter under investigation. Any member of the commission may sign subpoenas, and members and examiners of the commission may administer oaths and affirmations, examine witnesses, and receive evidence.

Such attendance of witnesses, and the production of such documentary evidence, may be required from any place in the United States, at any designated place of hearing. And in case of disobedience to a subpoena the commission may

invoke the aid of any court of the United States in requiring the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of documentary evidence.

The Clayton Act. Almost simultaneously with the Federal Trade Commission Act there was passed the Clayton Act approved October 15, 1914 (38 Stat. L., 730). Among its provisions were four sections prohibiting certain specific practices and authorizing the Federal Trade Commission to prevent them. Apparently they would have come under the general provision of the Federal Trade Commission Act prohibiting unfair methods of competition, but Congress made doubly sure by specifically declaring them illegal.

Section 2 prohibits in certain cases, price discrimination. where the effect may be substantially to lessen competition or to tend to create a monopoly in any line of commerce.

Section 3 prohibits so-called "tying contracts," that is, contracts whereby as a condition of sale or lease of commodities, the seller or lessor exacts from the purchaser or lessee an agreement that he shall not use or deal in other commodities except those furnished by the seller or lessor, where the effect may be substantially to lessen competition or to tend to create a monopoly.

Section 7 prohibits "holding companies" or the ownership by one company of the stock of another, where the effect may be substantially to lessen competition between the companies or to tend to create a monopoly.

Section 8 prohibits "interlocking directorates" in corporations either of which has a capital, surplus, and undivided profits aggregating more than $1,000,000, and which are competitors, so that the elimination of competition by agreement between them would be a violation of any of the anti-trust laws.

The procedure outlined for the enforcement of these provisions by the Federal Trade Commission is identical with that of the Federal Trade Commission Act except that the proviso

that the proceedings in the opinion of the commission would be to the interest of the public is omitted.

War Work of the Commission. 4 Like all the government services the Federal Trade Commission was called upon during the World War to help in the emergency. The extra work done by the commission was chiefly of two kinds; the investigation of the cost of production of various commodities, and the execution of the provision of the Trading-with-theEnemy Act that had to do with the granting of licenses to use enemy owned patent and copyrights.

Cost of Production Work. It was the policy of the government after entering the war to insist on reasonable prices for its own purchases. Later on it became necessary to regulate prices to protect itself and the public. To do this intelligently, information with regard to production, costs, and investments was necessary. The President directed that when cost information was needed the various branches of the government requiring such information should obtain it through the Federal Trade Commission. As a result a great part of the attention and energy of the commission was devoted to this work during the period of the war. Among the various branches of the government to which reports were rendered on production costs of commodities were the War Department, the Navy Department, the War Industries Board, the Fuel Administration, the Food Administration, the Shipping Board and the Emergency Fleet Corporation, the Railroad Administration, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Justice, the Post Office Department, and the Government Printing Office. In no instance did the Federal Trade Commission act as a price-fixing body, but the information it collected was used by other bodies in determining prices.

Altogether some 264 of these confidential cost of production reports were made. The methods of investigation varied

4 A detailed discussion of the regular work of the commission will be found in the following chapter.

considerably, but in most cases an examination of the books of account by the staff of the commission was included. In the case of some commodities the figures were kept up to date by means of monthly reports in a form prescribed by the commission. This was particularly true of the coal industry, where monthly cost reports were begun in August, 1917, and continued up to and including December, 1918. After that they were discontinued because the Fuel Administration no longer required the information.

Work under the Trading-with-the-Enemy Act. On October 6, 1917, the Trading-with-the-Enemy Act 5 was approved. It vested in the President certain powers, some of which, by Executive Order of October 12, 1917, the President delegated to the Federal Trade Commission. These included authority:

(a) To license citizens and corporations of the United States to make, use, and vend any machine, manufacture, composition of matter or design, or to use any process, trade mark, print label, or copyright owned or controlled by an enemy or ally of enemy.

(b) To order that an invention be kept secret and the grant of a patent withheld until the end of the war, whenever the publication of an invention or the granting of a patent may be detrimental to the public safety or defense or may assist the enemy, or endanger the successful prosecution of the war.

(c) To license citizens and corporations of the United States to file and prosecute in the country of an enemy or ally of enemy, applications for patents or for registration of trade marks, prints, labels, or copyrights, or to pay any taxes, annuities or fees relating thereto.

The authority under (c) above was revoked by the President, at the suggestion of the commission, in an Executive Order issued April 11, 1918, and after that date no licenses were issued under its authority. The commission issued 2940 or5 40 Stat. L., 411,