HOLDING COMPANIES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 41, 17 January 1938, Page 7

HOLDING COMPANIES.

“MUST BE ELIMINATED.” PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S ATTACK. WASHINGTON, Jan. 15. President Roosevelt at a Press conference declared that all holding companies must be eliminated from the nation’s economic structure, whether in control of public utilities, banking, or other businesses. In response to this statement, Mr Wendell Wilkie, president of the bil-lion-dollar Commonwealth and Southern Corporation, offered to break up the vast holding company by selling the entire South-Eastern Utility properties to the Government. “L make the suggestion as a last resort in a desperate situation,” lie said. Mr Wilkie added that his action followed competition by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Government’s declared intention of breaking up all holding companies. He asserted that President Roosevelt’s suggestion that utility companies ' should he sold to the municipalities was impossible, since the cities’ wholesale supply of electricity was obtainable from the T.V.A. He was of the opinion that his offer to the Government was the only chance to protect 200,000 investors and 13,000 employees. He proposed that the price should be fixed either by negotiation or by three arbitrators selected one each by President Roosevelt, the Supreme Court and the corporation. NEW ~JUDGE. SOLICITOR-GENERAL CHOSEN. WASHINGTON, Jan. 15. President Roosevelt has designated the Solicitor-General (Mr Stanley Reed) a strong supporter of the New Deal, to succeed Mr Justice Sutherland as a Judge of the Supreme Court.