ANTITRUST: McLaren Out

As the Nixon Administration's chief trustbuster, Assistant Attorney General Richard McLaren slapped down hard on conglomerate mergers and generally set a blistering pace. On a single day this month, he filed suit against the Chicago Board of Trade, challenging its right to fix commission rates on commodity-futures trading, and urged the

Securities and Exchange Commission also to stop commission fixing on stock trading. The next day he was on his way out, confirmed by the Senate as a federal district judge in Chicago without debate and with little publicity.

The speed fanned inevitable speculation that McLaren had been booted as a prelude to a relaxation of antitrust policy. To that, Deputy Attorney General Richard Kleindienst had a convincing reply: McLaren had asked to be appointed a judge last summer, and renewed his request recently when Julius Hoffman of Chicago conspiracy trial fame retired, opening a vacancy in McLaren's home town. McLaren's name had to be rushed to the Senate to meet a deadline set by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Eastland for nominations to be acted on this year.

The Justice Department issued a statement pledging "the same vigorous enforcement" of antitrust laws as under McLaren. There seems little reason to doubt that intention, at least until and unless Attorney General John Mitchell resigns to manage Nixon's re-election campaign. Mitchell has talked quite as hawkish an antitrust line as McLaren. The Administration, however, has had no time to consider a successor to its departing antitrust chief. It is an open question whether the Government will find one quite as aggressive as he.