Business & Finance: Asphalt Test

Practically all industries have some trade association. Famed are such potent and august bodies as the Copper Institute, the American Iron & Steel Institute, the Institute of American Meat Packers. Less famed are the Better Bedding Alliance of America, the Corset & Brassiere Association of America, the Hickory Handle Association. The aim of each is to promote the interests of its members: soapmen know that the Cleanliness Institute is a booster for more washing. But sometimes .this mutual help goes further than advertising. And for this reason last week many an institute fearfully watched the affairs of the Asphalt Shingle & Roofing Institute which had drawn upon its own roof, which shelters 41 members, the fire of Federal prosecution.

In the Asphalt Shingle & Roofing Institute's affairs the Government claimed to see much that violated anti-trust laws. It objected to the way in which the Institute, whose members dominate the field, reported prices, equalized freight, fixed uniform maximum discounts to customers classified by volume or function. The Government objected, too, to the Institute's arbitration system and method of bonding each member ($25,000 to $100,000) to insure payment of penalties.

Knowing last year that the suit was pending, the Institute has revamped its methods, hoped it would be pardoned. It now claims the practices were resorted to merely to save the industry in 1929. It says: "The decision in this case should be of unusual importance . . . in determining whether these laws are a barrier to proper and necessary co-operation among businessmen in enforcing ethical business practices and in fostering conditions of reasonable business stability."