nated resale prices; (4) by employing salesmen or agents to assist in this plan by reporting dealers who do not observe such prices; (5) by utilizing numbers or symbols marked, stamped, or perforated upon the wrappers or containers of respondent's products with a view to ascertaining the names of dealers who sell said prodncts at less than the suggested prices.

Procter & Gamble case.-This company and its sales subsidiary are engaged in the manufacture and sale of a soap, soap powder, and soap chips, designated, respectively, as "P. & G. The White Naphtha Soap," "Star Naphtha Washing Powder," and "P. & G. The White Naptha Soap Chips." These products contain no naphtha, but, instead, a petroleum distillate consisting of kerosene, which, upon manufacture, amounted to one-half of 1 per cent by weight and 1 per cent, respectively, in the case of the two first-named products, but was subject to complete or partial loss by volatilization subsequent to manufacture and prior to sale in the normal course of trade to the consuming public, and was not present in these three products in an amount sufficiently substantial to enhance their value and cleansing power upon their use by the public. It also advertised these products extensively throughout the United States, emphasizing particularly the cleansing quality because of the naphtha content. The commission entered its order on August 6, 1924, and the company, availing itself of its statutory right, filed a petition for review in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The case had been briefed and was argued on October 6 of this year.

Misrepresentation-feather beds.-The Lewis Feather Bed & Pillow Co., a partnership, engaged in business at Nashville, Tenn., was the respondent in this case. This company having no factory of its own, purchased its supplies of feather beds and pillows from the manufacturers thereof and by misrepresentation and false advertising misled and deceived the purchasing public into believing that they were selling direct to the consumer at factory prices, thus eliminating the middleman's profits. It also described its products as being of different grades and qualities, and offered and sold the same under different trade names and labels at varying prices, when the fact was that the products so described did not differ in any respect in either grade or quality. The commission's order which forbade these practices was entered on February 9, 1925.

Missouri-Kansas Wholesale Grocers' Association case.-This association, as the name implies, is composed of wholesale grocers located and doing business in the western half of Missouri and throughout the State of Kansas. Its membership consisted of upward of 75 wholesale concerns and represented about 80 per cent of all the wholesalers located within the territory above mentioned. The com

mission's complaint charged that the respondents adopted a plan of hampering, obstructing, and preventing the Procter & Gamble Co., which quoted equal prices to both wholesalers and retailers, from selling soap, soap products, and cooking fats to the members of the respondent association and wholesale grocers and coercing wholesalers to refrain from dealing in the products of the said Procter & Gamble Co. Testimony was taken before a trial examiner and the case duly briefed and argued before the commission, and, on May 9, 1925, the commission entered its order to cease and desist.

Keeler Bros. & Co. case-Unfair competition in the purchase and sale of bonds.-The moving spirits in this case were Frank W. Keeler and George E. Keeler, and they operated under the name of the company just given and also through the Columbia Securities Co. and the National Finance Corporation. The unfair methods of competition charged by the commission in its complaint were that the respondents who were engaged in the purchase and sale of municipal, county, and school bonds-procured bonds which were on their face valid, but in which had been fraudulently embodied provisions and terms indicating increased commercial value, using in connection with the sale of such bonds false and misleading histories thereof, and failing to disclose to purchasers and prospective purchasers the real facts in connection with the issues of securities offered for sale. The buying public was misled into believing that the bonds sold by these respondents were valid obligations of the municipalities by which they had been executed and that they were issued in accordance with law; and, furthermore, that such purchasers would involve themselves in no risk of repudiation or expense of litigation to confirm the validity or to enforce collection. on such bonds. The commission's order, which was entered on July 26, 1924, was very comprehensive and ordered the individuals and companies named to cease and desist from either combining, federating, and conspiring together or acting separately and individually, directly or indirectly, from engaging in any of the practices specified above.

Misrepresentation in the sale of butter.-To meet the demand of the consuming public for small quantities of butter, a custom had long prevailed whereby creamery companies shipped and sold butter in sizes weighing, respectively, 4 ounces, 8 ounces, and 1 pound, the standard carton in which said units were placed by said companies being such as to contain 1 full pound. In each such carton is placed either four of the 4-ounce, two of the 8-ounce, or one of the fullpound units. These units before being placed in the carton by the creamery companies are separately dressed in an unmarked wrapper, and the butter so shaped, wrapped, and packed is distributed through wholesale dealers or jobbers and also by the creamery companies di

rect to the retailers. The Ozark Creamery Co., the respondent in this proceeding, instead of the customary and standard units of weight just referred to, packed, shipped, and sold butter in units weighing 32, 7, and 14 ounces, and to further carry out such deceptive practice this company used cartons which were equal in size and which, by similarity of dress and design, otherwise simulated the cartons in which the full-weight units were sold. By this practice this concern placed in the hands of the retailers a means which enabled them to commit a fraud on the consuming public by removing these units from the correctly marked cartons for sale as standard-weight units of butter. The company, while ostensibly complying with the law by marking the exact weights on the outer wrapper or carton, was charged by the commission with knowledge that, customarily, this outer wrapper was not seen by the purchaser of the separate small units. The commission entered its order on February 3, 1925.

Misleading advertising-correspondence school. The commission on September 2, 1924, issued its complaint against F. W. Dobe, an individual, with his place of business in Chicago, Ill., and engaged through correspondence courses in teaching the art of mechanical drafting to persons located in various States of the United States. The respondent, in order to secure pupils for his course of instruction, caused various false and deceptive statements to be inserted in different magazines, periodicals, and newspapers of general circulation throughout the United States. Among such statements were (a) that respondent was then chief draftsman of the Engineers' Equipment Co., which company acted as consulting engineer and furnished designs for large mechanical plants and buildings, etc.; (b) that the prescribed course of instruction furnished by respondent to his pupils would qualify them as capable draftsmen earning $250 or more per month; and other statements to the same effect. The commission's order was entered on February 6, 1925.

Misrepresentation in the production of motion pictures.-The commission, under date of March 23, 1925, entered its order directing M. Brown, doing business under the name of Capital Film Exchange, William Alexander, Herman Rifkin, and the Films Distributors' League (Inc.), their agents, servants, and employees, to cease and desist from directly or indirectly advertising, selling, or leasing any reissued motion-picture photo play under a title other than that under which such photo play was originally issued and exhibited unless the former title of such photo play and the fact that theretofore it had been exhibited under such former title was clearly, definitely, distinctly, and unmistakably stated and set forth both in the photo play itself and in any and all advertising matter used in connection therewith. What called forth the commission's complaint and order was the action of the respondents at the time of

the production by the Douglas Fairbanks interests of a photo play entitled "The Three Musketeers" with the purpose of trading on the popularity of said Douglas Fairbanks and on the demand. created by advanced advertising of his production in reissuing the photo play "D'Artagnan," produced for the Triangle Film Corporation in 1915, after changing the name to "The Three Musketeers," and advertising said reissue under its new title without designating it as a reissue.

False and misleading advertising-Sheffield plate.-During the year the commission issued a number of orders in cases involving false and misleading advertising in the sale of silverware and silverplated ware. It appeared that the city of Sheffield, England, and vicinity constituted that country's largest producing area of silverware and silver-plated ware and the center of its silver industry, and that products there made had come to be highly regarded by the trade and public, and the words "Sheffield silver," "Sheffield plate," and "Sheffield silver-plated ware," when applied to such products, had come to denote to a substantial portion of the public that the products so designated had been manufactured in Sheffield, England, and were of the quality which had become associated with that name and industry. The respondents against whom orders were issued, who were all dealers in silver-plated ware by the electroplating process, sold their products with the words "Sheffield," "Sheffield plate," and other combinations of words, including the word "Sheffield," impressed or stamped thereon, notwithstanding the fact that the same were of domestic origin and not of that quality associated with the word "Sheffield" as above set forth. The effect of this practice was to induce the purchase of these products thus misrepresented as to quality and origin, by a substantial portion of the trade and public in preference to the products of competitors dealing in silver-plated ware manufactured in Sheffield, England, and of those dealing in products not there manufactured and not so designated.

Appeal lies to the United States circuit courts of appeal, either by the commission to enforce its order or by the respondent to set the order aside. Since its organization the commission has issued 708 orders to cease and desist and appeals have been taken in 62

cases.

COURT CASES

The pages immediately following contain brief descriptions of the court cases in which the commission was involved during the year. It will be noted that these cases total 27-2 in the United States Supreme Court, 21 in the United States circuit courts of appeals, 2 in the courts of the District of Columbia, and 2 in the United States district courts.

CASES IN UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

The Claire Furnace Co. case-Investigation instituted by the commission upon its own motion, but after suggestions and conference with the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives. The facts relative to this case are as follows: The commission sent questionnaires to practically all corporations engaged in the manufacture and in the sale in interstate commerce of finished and semifinished steel products, requiring them to make monthly reports showing the quantities of products manufactured, plant capacity, orders booked during the month, the cost of manufacturing, the prices at which sold in domestic and foreign commerce, and general income statement and balance sheet. The declared purpose of the inquiry was to publish the information acquired in totals, so as to show existing conditions in the production and sale of steel products. Certain of the corporations declined to make the reports and joined in a suit in equity to restrain the commission from proceeding in any manner to compel the production of the information or to impose any penalties for failure to produce it.

The Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, in which the suit was instituted, issued a permanent injunction enjoining the commission on the ground that the information sought was not information respecting interstate commerce nor information with respect to matters so directly affecting such commerce that it could be required under the commerce clause of the Constitution.

The commission appealed the case to the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, which affirmed the decree of the lower court. The commission then took the case to the Supreme Court of the United States, where it was argued on December 6, 1923.

On April 20, 1925, the Supreme Court directed reargument and restored the case to the calendar for November 2, 1925.

The grain cases-Investigation under authority conferred by Senate resolution.-The companies involved in these cases were Hammond, Snyder & Co., the Baltimore Grain Co., and the H. C. Jones Co. The commission sought in the District Court of the United States for the District of Maryland writs of mandamus to compel the corporations, each of which was engaged in foreign and interstate as well as intrastate trade in grain, to permit the authorized agents of the commission to examine, inspect, and copy from their books of account records, documents, correspondence, and papers relating to or bearing on their business in interstate commerce.

In taking this action the commission was acting in compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the United States directing it to investigate the margins between farm and export prices, the freight and other costs of handling, the profits and losses of the principal