You can take them off the market because it is pretty bad if a woman is out dancing some night and a fellow came along with a cigarette with a lighted flame and brushed against her and she went up in flames. Through the Bureau's efforts in these cases, over 1,500,000 yards of these dangerously flammable goods have been held off the market until it can be treated with a flame retardant. This is enough fabric to manufacture approximately one-third of a million dresses. Senator MONRONEY. Have you rather well cured this, particularly in children's clothing?

Mr. DIXON. We would hope so, sir. These cowboy suit things is where I think this law actually came from.

Senator MONRONEY. Fuzzy pile fabric.

Mr. DIXON. Pile fabric, and they would be just like a powder keg.
Senator MONRONEY. You had the cooperation of the industry?
Mr. DIXON. Yes.

Mr. GLENDENING. It still requires constant vigilance.

Mr. DIXON. There is always somebody, especially some importers. These people abroad do not have to pay any attention to our act, but the importer has to, and they slip in here some way. I think this committee proposes to take a new look at this general subject matter, but we are cooperating. We are getting good cooperation out of foreign countries because I think they know it is not to their advantage to have this kind of a thing happen.

Senator MONRONEY. You may proceed.

PERSONNEL NEED, ANTIMONOPOLY PROGRAM

Mr. DIXON. Another area of FTC's work critically threatened by insufficient manpower is its antimonopoly program. Here Commission attorneys must face the most formidable legal opposition that well-entrenched corporations can hire, for these corporations are not about to relinquish any competitive advantage if it can possibly be defended, or if the effective date of a cease-and-desist order can at least be delayed.

The Commission's policy-and a gratifyingly successful one has been to attack monopolistic practices on a broad enough scale so that principal competitors could cease the illegal practice simultaneously so that none would be hurt competitively. This largely accounts for the fact that FTC's antimonopoly orders increased ninefold in 1963 as compared to 1955. But the strain on FTC's antimonopoly staff has been too heavy; many have departed to take less strenuous and better paying jobs in private industry. Those remaining are tremendously overloaded; for example, in enforcing the Robinson-Patman Act's prohibition against giving discriminatory prices to favored buyers-usually the biggest-the investigation and litigation workload amounts to 34 cases per attorney, or more than three times the number he could be expected to handle efficiently. In addition, the 40 available attor neys must process 4,500 correspondence matters related to applications for complaint and pending cases.

WORKLOAD OF DIVISION OF DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES

Just 16 attorneys, or 40 percent of FTC's Division of Discriminatory Practices, now have the staggering job of conducting industry wide enforcement actions against (1) processors and retail chainstore distributors of fluid milk, (2) manufacturers of wearing apparel, (3)

department stores and grocery chainstores, and (4) the marketing of automotive replacement parts.

RESTRAINT OF TRADE WORKLOAD

To detail here the full workload of our Bureau of Restraint of Trade would defeat the purpose of a summary, but a study of the text of this budget request will make it plain that the best we can hope for is that the present staff won't despair of its work overload and seek less strenuous employment elsewhere.

INCREASING VOLUNTARY COMPLIANCE

Forunately, the Commission is pursuing a policy that achieves a great deal more compliance with the law than would be possible by adversary actions alone and with a considerable saving in manpower. This policy is to utilize the willingness of the vast majority of businesses to abide by the law if its borderlines are clearly illuminated for them and, incidentally, for their competitors and their customers. We find it very heartening that FTC's guidance efforts by new voluntary means are, after a slow start, now rapidly winning acceptance by business firms. For example, the number of requests for advisory opinions during the fourth quarter of 1963 increased by almost 70 percent over the preceding quarter. And the opinions sought were not on simple questions; they concerned such complex matters as whether proposed mergers would violate the law, the legality of cooperative advertising plans, and whether functional, quantity, and cumulative discount plans would be legal.

DEMAND FOR TRADE REGULATION RULES

Also, there is a significant increase in demand for trade regulation rules, a companion innovation for industry's guidance. A year ago, the staff assigned to this work had 8 proceedings pending; now the same sized staff is overloaded with 20 proceedings. The resulting delay could sabotage the program.

INDUSTRY GUIDES AND TRADE PRACTICE CONFERENCES

As for the longer established industry guides and trade practice conference programs, two needs are obvious: First, there is a cumulative demand for administering those TPC rules and guides already issued-they cannot be brushed off as finished business; and, second, we must wherever feasible tackle more industry problems by these broadscale voluntary methods as an alternative to costly litigation. By the end of this fiscal year, 172 industries will be operating under TPC rules, and 12 industry guides will have been issued. Altogether, 1,100 compliance matters had to be handled in these areas in fiscal 1963.

ECONOMIC STUDIES

Finally, in addition to its law enforcement and business guidance work, the Commission would fail in one of of its most useful functions were there to be any curtailment of its economic studies. Thanks to its broad power to command information, the Commission's economic reports are of tremendous value to the Congress and to business in assessing the character and the gravity of business problems. For ex

ample, under study now are such developments as vertical integration in the rubber tire industry, competitive conditions in the manufacture and sale of certain resins vital to the plastics industry, and the effects of FTC merger cases upon concentration in the dairy industry. In addition, of course, the Commission's economists provide invaluable assistance in assembling and analyzing economic evidence in the prosecu-. tion of cases.

In summary, Mr. Chairman, we believe this request for funds for fiscal 1965 is as modest as the realities of the Commission's workload permit. Indeed, we intend to stretch every dollar to the utmost so that businessmen and the public recognize that on this 50th year of its existence the Federal Trade Commission is fulfilling its purpose. Senator MONRONEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

THE 1964 REQUESTS

Your new moneys that are being requested are $1,055,000.
Mr. DIXON. That is correct.

Senator MONRONEY. I believe in the first page of your statement you show that all but $171,000 of that amount will be devoted either to the pay raises or to the in-grade promotions.

Mr. DIXON. Or catching up.

Senator MONRONEY. Or catching up. Or the purchase of the electronic computer.

Mr. DIXON. That is correct, sir.

NEW POSITIONS

Senator MONRONEY. In other words, you are asking for 27 new positions costing $171,000, of which 25 of these are needed to bolster the Commission's mandatory obligation to police the Wool, Fur, Textile, and Flammable Fabrics Act, right?

Mr. DIXON. That is correct.

Senator MONRONEY. There are no funds in there for any work on the cigarette matter.

Mr. DIXON. No, sir. We are doing this within our regular appropriation.

PERSONNEL CEILINGS

Senator MONRONEY. Have you put in the record or do you have it there, the personnel ceilings that you have had for the past 5 years? Mr. DIXON. We have not had a ceiling imposed on us. Senator MONRONEY. We have the last three here.

Mr. DIXON. Well, actually we have authorized 1,178 positions by Congress. Today we are down to 1,148. Now, this became necessary so that we would not have to have a RIF program, I guess is the word they use, to stay within the moneys given to us.

Now, we have in effect not been able to replace people as the turnovers came. It is very important that we get back to the 1,178 because we need them, but actually this money would provide us means to come back to the 1,178 which we were authorized 2 years ago, and then add to that 27 new positions which this money would provide.

Senator MONRONEY. If you are given these 27, would this have any effect on catching up with the regulatory lag or will you still have many cases where there will be a year or two delay in getting to the investigation?

Mr. DIXON. We have a program to take a look at the older cases. This kind of defeats itself, but this is one of the reasons within the past 3 years we Commissioners have added so many innovations to try to do these things in a different way. I think you will find that it is easy for me to report if someone wants to talk about numbers of cases. We are getting results, such as affidavits of discontinuance, and I think they are just as valuable as a cease-and-desist order, and we have extended this across the board, even into the antitrust field. We were not allowed to come here to ask for any money for antitrust work, but we told you our need, and we are telling you that we will do the best we can within the framework of what we have.

Senator MONRONEY. Senator Allott?

THOUSAND COMPANY REPORT

Senator ALLOTT. There is no money in this budget to go ahead with the thousand company report we discussed last year.

Mr. DIXON. Sir, the proviso you put on there last year took care of that one.

Senator ALLOTT. I would like to submit to you, Mr. Dixon, a series of questions which I would like to have you answer and place in the record for the benefit of the Senator from Nebraska, Mr. Hruska. Mr. DIXON. Very happy to.

Senator ALLOTT. I submit these in his behalf.

Mr. DIXON. We will get them right back to you as quickly as possible.

(The information referred to follows:)

QUESTIONS PROPOUNDED IN WRITING BY SENATOR ALLOTT ON BEHALF OF SENATOR HRUSKA, AND ANSWERS SUPPLIED BY MR. DIXON

Question 1. In view of the presumably greater budget requested by the FTC than for the preceding period, what is the present average caseload of the Commission's hearing examiners, by comparison with the average caseload per hearing examiner over each of the past 5 years?

Answer. Table I, which follows, shows in the last column the average caseload per examiner at the end of fiscal years 1959 through 1963 and at the end of the first 9 months of fiscal year 1964.

TABLE I.—Average caseload of hearing examiners, 1959–64

It will be noted that the number of pending cases decreased substantially in fiscal 1962 and thereafter. This was caused by a change in the method of handling consent settlements.

Prior to 1962, all complaints issued by the Commission were sent to hearing examiners who presided over litigation or over consent settlements as the occasion required. During this time it was possible to settle a case by consent agreement at any time prior to decision.

In 1962, the Office (now the Division) of Consent Orders was established. To this Office were sent (1) all old cases on the hearing examiners' dockets where

in the respondents stated that they desired to settle by consent, and (2) all new cases as issued by the Commission wherein respondents stated they desired to settle by consent.

Under the new consent order procedure the hearing examiners have been relieved of a large number of cases. Under this new procedure 100 old cases have been removed from the hearing examiners' dockets and sent to the Office of Consent Orders, 81 in 1962, 14 in 1963, and 5 in 1964. Moreover, in 1963, of the 475 cases disposed of by the Commission only 86 were contested and 381 were settled by consent. (The other eight cases were settled by admissions and default.) Question 2. How many cases are presently pending before the Commissioners for adjudication, and what is the average time taken by the Commissioners for disposing of cases in their adjudicative capacity?

Answer. There were 50 cases pending on the Commission's Adjudicative Calendar on April 24, 1964. Of these, 22 were ready for decision either after argument or where there is to be no argument. The remaining 28 cases required some intermediate step, such as filing of briefs, to make them ready for decision.

Based on a sample of 100 cases that were ready for decision, the average time taken by the Commision to dispose of cases in their adjudicative capacity is 184.83 days, or 6.16 months per case, with the shortest time being 1 day and the longest 1 year, 4 months, and 2 days.

These 100 cases in this sample were presented to the Commission for formal adjudication in fiscal 1963 and were decided prior to April 24, 1964. There were 37 other cases (or a total of 137) presented during fiscal 1963. One of these additional 37 cases is on the Commission's current docket, and the other 36 did not require formal decisions or written opinions, for they were cases that had been settled by consent agreements or that involved no appeal from initial decisions of hearing examiners.

Question 3. How do the figures for the workload of FTC hearing examiners and the FTC in its judicial capacity compare with the average caseload, respectively, of Federal district judges in the District of Columbia, and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in terms of cases handled by the judges and the length of time for handing down decisions?

Answer. I. Comparison between court of appeals and Federal Trade Commission.-Table II, which follows, shows for fiscal year 1963 a comparison of the "workload of * ** the FTC in its judicial capacity *** and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in terms of cases handled *** and the length of time for handing down decisions."

TABLE II.-Comparison of workloads of Court of Appeals for District of Columbia and FTC, fiscal year 1963

1 This is the median average.

2 This is the mean average. See answer to question 2.

Period referred to is from time of filing to time of disposition.
Period referred to is from time case is ready for decision to time of disposition.

Source: 1963 Report of Administrative Office of U.S. Courts, pp. 182-185; and FTC files.

The footnotes to table II indicate that the time-per-case figures of 6.16 months for the Commission and 8.9 months for the court are not wholly comparable. The time-per-case figure for the Commission (being calculated, as shown in the answer to question 2, for the period after the cases are ready for decision) would be increased, of course, if it were calculated for the period from filing to disposition, which is the period used for the court. But the Commission's timeper-case figure would be substantially decreased if all types of cases were included in calculating the average, such as the cases shown in table II under the categories of (1) "Admissions and defaults," and (2) "Consent."