ADVERTISING: The Secrets Are Out

Under a bold-faced ad heading, ANTITRUST, Manhattan’s Barclay hotel last February genially invited the nation’s corporations to take advantage of its executive suites ($7,500 a year and up). Said the Barclay in its ad in the New York Times: “Corporation secrets are best discussed in the privacy of an Executive Suite at the Barclay.” Last week the statement was open to doubt. In Philadelphia a Federal Grand Jury returned a second set of indictments against eight electrical-equipment makers, charging antitrust violations involving criminal conspiracy to fix prices, divide markets and rig bids (TIME, Feb. 29). One of the hotels where the executives from the firms involved met to fix their prices: the Barclay.