Antitrust: The Great Short Circuit

From Washington last week came a sharp demonstration that the fuses of the great electrical price-fixing conspiracy (TIME, Feb. 29, 1960 et seq.) are still blowing. After six months of negotiations with the Justice Department, the General Electric Co. agreed to pay an immense $7,470,000 for an out-of-court settlement of eleven suits brought against it by Government agencies that claimed to have been overcharged on G.E. equipment as a result of the conspiracy. All but $1,000,000 of the payment—the biggest antitrust settlement in history—will go to the Tennessee Valley Authority, which first blew the...