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'Wheeler-Dealers'

"The relief was a white
wash," Mr. Elzinga continued.
"Economically it didn't make
any sense. McLaren will look
bad, and I'd hate to see that
happen because the real
operators, the wheeler-dealers,
are apparently Mitchell and
Kleindienst.

"It's astonishing that they
settled for so little. I was
talking to a colleague of mine
today who reminded me that if
Lyndon Johnson were involved
in this- in something of this
magnitude, the amount of
money involved- that Lyndon
Johnson surely would have
picked up a couple of million
dollars instead of a pittance -
$400,000," he said.

Mr. Elzinga concluded by
calling the settlement "a
tragedy." "As an economist I
didn't think the decree made
any sense. I think it's a shame
that ITT got off the hook that
way and also that the Supreme
Court never had a chance to
clarify the law on
conglomerate mergers."

"If the Supreme Court let
ITT go, I'm quite certain that
people like Sen. (Phillip) Hart
would have struck for new
legislation, which would have
been called for if the law as the
court interpreted it did allow
mergers of this nature. Mr.
Hart and those people were
waiting to see what the court
would say on this," he
explained.