in fact, composed wholly of lead and zinc. The order further forbids the respondent from using any statement or representation as to the kind, class, or proportion of ingredients of any of its paint in advertising matter or on labels or containers thereof, except where such statement is true in fact. Respondent has filed a report with the Commission stating that it is complying with the order.

FALSE AND MISLEADING ADVERTISING

Theronoid, Inc., a Delaware corporation, Theronoid Corporation, an Ohio corporation, and Philip Illsley, J. Roy Owens, and J. N. Watson, New York, engaged in the business of offering for sale and selling a device consisting of a coil of wire or solenoid in a container intended to be placed around patients or users whereby, by means of an alternating electric current, an electromagnetic field of alleged therapeutic value was said by respondents to be created to the great benefit of customers using the same. It was claimed by respondents that the use of said device or appliance in the manner aforesaid was a beneficial therapeutic agent in the aid, relief, prevention, or cure of the following diseases, namely: Asthma, arthritis, bladder trouble, bronchitis, catarrh, constipation, diabetes, eczema, heart trouble, hemorrhoids, indigestion, insomnia, lumbago, nervous disorders, neuralgia, neuritis, rheumatism, sciatica, stomach trouble, varicose veins, and high blood pressure.

The complaint alleged that prospective dealers and other purchasers, believing and relying upon the truth of respondents' representations, have been deceived into believing that the use of the device of respondents will be of remedial or therapeutic value in the aid, relief, prevention, or cure of the ailments specified, whereas the convincing and undisputed testimony of many disinterested scientists, eminent in their respective fields of physics, medicine, surgery, biology, physiology, electrotherapy, physiotherapy, etc., supports the conclusion that such belief is false and unwarranted. Respondents denied the allegations of the complaint.

After hearings had been held the Commission issued an order to cease and desist, in which it ordered the several respondents, in connection with the advertising, offering for sale, and sale in interstate commerce of the solenoid belt or device, heretofore known as Theronoid, to cease and desist from representing in any manner whatsoever that the said belt or device or any similar device or appliance designed or intended to operate through exposure of a human subject to a low-frequency alternating magnetic field, without any physical conductive connection of such subject in the circuit, has any physiotherapeutic effect upon such subject, or that it is calculated or likely to aid in the prevention, treatment, or cure of any human ailment, sickness, or disease.

MISREPRESENTING SEED POTATOES

Mahaffey Commission Co., and C. E. Malmin, alias "Northern Agricultural Institute", Chicago, engaged as a commission merchant in the sale and distribution of seed potatoes, purchased by it in carload lots from sellers located in various States and shipped by those sellers from such States to the respondent company at Chicago. Respondent Malmin, designating himself as "Northern Agricultural Institute", upon the instructions of respondent commission company, certified and tagged the said seed potatoes with labels indicating that they had been competently and disinterestedly inspected, and that they were therefore free from "dwarfing", "running out", "mosaic", and any other potato diseases determinable by inspection of the growing seed potato plant, when such was not the fact. The complaint alleged that the aforesaid practices of respondents induced purchasers to purchase the said seed potatoes at prices higher than would have been paid for seed potatoes not inspected and certified in the manner in which they believed respondents' seed potatoes had been inspected or certified. Respondents were charged with other false and misleading representations relating to the quality of their seed potatoes and relating to their methods of doing business. Respondents in their answer admitted that they were engaged in interstate commerce in competition with others, denied all other allegations of the complaint, and waived all further proceedings and voluntarily consented that the Commission might make, enter, and serve upon them an order to cease and desist from the methods of competition alleged in said complaint.

Thereafter, in accordance with the rules of the Commission, an order to cease and desist was issued, without findings as to the facts, in which the respondents were directed, in connection with the sale or offering for sale in interstate commerce of seed potatoes, to cease and desist from representing directly or by implication that inspection or certification by the respondent, C. E. Malmin, is certification or inspection by the "Northern" or any other "agricultural institute" and that the said seed potatoes have been inspected and certified to by any persons whomsoever or in any manner whatsoever other than is actually the case. Respondents have filed a report with the Commission stating that they are complying with the order.

FALSE AND MISLEADING REPRESENTATIONS

GROCERY BUSINESS

Menke Grocery Co., Kansas City, Mo., engaged in selling groceries, stock powders, and other merchandise at retail upon orders obtained by house-to-house canvasses and by mail to purchasers thereof situated in the States of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and other States of the United States.

The Commission charged the company with representing its business as wholesale when it was in fact retail, with representing that it was doing business under the license and approval of the United States Government when such was not the fact, and with various and sundry other misrepresentations as to the articles sold by it and its methods of doing business. Respondent entered a general denial to the allegations of the complaint.

After hearings had been held, the Commission issued an order to cease and desist in which the respondent, in connection with the selling or offering for sale of its merchandise in interstate commerce, was directed to cease and desist from using in its letterheads, billheads, and other trade literature the legend "United States Food Administration, License G-30152", or in any other manner representing to the public that it operates under the license or approval of the United States Government; from representing on its letterheads and other trade literature, or through its agents, or in any other manner that it operates a wholesale grocery, or is a wholesale grocer; from selling any of its merchandise on promise or guaranties of satisfaction to the customer and that it will return the purchase price on the return of goods as to which the customer is dissatisfied, then not fulfilling such guaranties and promises; from promising, either expressly or impliedly, prompt shipment of merchandise purchased unless and until respondent, by regular course of business, shall make such prompt shipment; from shipping merchandise that is inferior to samples shown the prospective buyers or which substantially differs from the description of the merchandise sold by its agents; from misrepresenting in any manner the effectiveness of the stock and chicken powders or remedies; and from representing that any of its stock or chicken powders or remedies are sold on trial with the privilege of the buyer to return the merchandise if dissatisfied, and to receive back the price thereof, unless and until the respondent, in the regular course of business, shall return the purchase price upon the return by the customer of the merchandise purchased. Respondent has filed a report with the Commission stating that it is complying with the order.

MISDESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS

Rochester Nurseries, Inc., Rochester, N.Y., engaged in the business of selling and distributing nursery stock, such as fruit trees, ornamental shrubbery, etc., in a number of States of the Union, was charged in the complaint with representing itself as a nursery of long experience, propagating and growing its own stock, when in fact it was merely a jobber, purchasing the stock sold by it from a local nursery which it neither owned nor controlled and in which it had no substantial interest.

Respondent entered a general denial to the allegations of the complaint, and after the taking of testimony on both sides the Commission issued its findings of fact in which it found that the respondent made the representations alleged and that during the period when said representations were made it was a small concern with but $1,000 capital, owning no nursery, growing no stock, and wholly without equipment mentioned or implied in the advertisements circulated as inducements to customers and prospective customers in the sale of said nursery stock. The Commission further found that respondent was merely a sales organization or jobbing concern which purchased nursery stock from a bona fide nurseryman and sold it to retail customers. It was also found that among the competitors of respondent were a number of concerns who were growers of the nursery stock sold by them in competition with respondent, and that permanence, stability, and responsibility on the part of sellers of nursery stock are of peculiar importance to their customers as it is often a number of years after sale before the stock purchased bears fruit so as to disclose whether or not the stock is as represented.

It was also found that the use of the word "nurseries" in the corporate name of respondent, taken in connection with statements made in its literature used as an inducement in the sale of said nursery products, had and has the capacity and tendency to mislead and deceive the purchasing public into the belief that respondent actually grew or propagated the nursery products sold and distributed by it in the several States of the Union and that it owned, operated, and controlled nurseries and farms on which the said nursery products sold and distributed by it were grown.

Upon the conclusion that the acts and practices of respondent were to the prejudice of the public and respondent's competitors and constituted unfair methods of competition in violation of the statute, the Commission issued its order directing respondent, in connection with the advertising, offering for sale, and sale in interstate commerce of nursery stock, to cease and desist from directly or indirectly using the word "nurseries" or "nursery" or any other word or words of like import in its corporate or trade name, business signs, or advertising matter in combination or conjunction with any word or words unless and until said respondent actually owns or operates, or directly and absolutely controls a nursery or farm in or on which a substantial proportion of nursery stock sold and distributed by it in interstate commerce is grown. Respondent has filed a report with the Commission stating that it is complying with the order.

MISDESCRIPTION OF PRODUCT

Bulova Watch Co., New York.-The order to cease and desist in this case was issued without findings as to the facts in accordance

with the rules of the Commission, and it directs the respondent, in connection with or in the course of the sale or distribution of watches in interstate commerce, to cease and desist from representing that its watches contain a designated number of jewels, such as "Seventeen 17 Jewels" or "Nineteen 19 Jewels" or "Twenty-one 21 Jewels" or any other designated number of jewels, unless said watches actually contain the stated number of jewels, each and every one of which jewels serves a mechanical purpose as a frictional bearing; and from representing that its said watches are "adjusted" or "adj." so as to import or imply that the said watches have been adjusted to heat, cold, isochronism, and position unless said watches have actually been adjusted by respondent to heat, cold, isochronism, and position as the term "adjusted" or its abbreviation "adj." is generally understood in the watchmaking industry and by the purchasing public. Respondent has filed a report with the Commission stating that it is complying with the order.

MISREPRESENTING MEDICINES AND APPLIANCES AS RADIUM ACTIVE

Radium-Active Remedies Co., Pittsburgh, a corporation.—The Commission ordered the company to cease and desist representing that its products, or any of them, cure any diseases of the human body or that said products are radio or radium active unless and until they in fact have radio or radium activity sufficient to have therapeutic effect. It was found that respondent manufactured or prepared and sold medicinal preparations and appliances for the correction of human ailments which it advertised as being "radium active" by reason of a radium-bearing substance contained therein and that such radium active emanations would alleviate or cure various diseased conditions and ailments when in fact such substance was contained in such medicines and appliances in so small an amount as to have no therapeutic effect whatever. Respondent has filed a report with the Commission stating that it is complying with the order.

TYPES OF UNFAIR COMPETITION

PRACTICES CONDEMNED IN ORDERS TO CEASE AND DESIST ARE LISTED

The following partial list shows unfair methods of competition condemned by the Commission from time to time in its orders to cease and desist. (These do not include Clayton Act violations.)" The use of false or misleading advertising, calculated to mislead and deceive the purchasing public, to their damage and to the injury of competitors.

O Clayton Act violations under the Commission's jurisdiction include, subject to the various provisions of the statute concerned, price discrimination (see sec. 2 of this report), tying and exclusive contracts or dealings, corporate stock acquisitions (see sec. 7), and interlocking directorates (see sec. 8).