"Guilty!"
The word rolled out like a dirge in a Philadelphia court last week as lawyer after lawyer rose to voice the history-making plea for his clients. They were 19 major electrical manufacturers, including General Electric Co. and Westinghouse Electric Corp., charged by the Government with conspiring to rig bids and fix prices in the sale of $7 billion in electrical equipment (TIME, Dec. 5). In the largest criminal case in the history of the antitrust laws, most of the companies were allowed to plead nolo contendere (no contest) in certain cases, provided they pleaded guilty in seven major cases....