Washington's first big salvo against conglomerate corporations came only last month. It was fired by the Justice Department, which announced plans for an antitrust suit to divest Ling-Temco-Vought of its controlling interest in Jones & Laughlin Steel. Last week, "multimarket" companies, as they prefer to be called, quavered again as the Federal Trade Commission took aim at a merger by another big concern, Los Angeles-based Litton Industries.
Litton's latest merger is far smaller than James Ling's $425 million J. & L. deal, and does not even involve an American concern. The FTC's target is a pair...