ABSTRACT
The usual pattern in American business and trade associations is one of unanimity, or, more accurately, quasi-unanimity. The appropriate staff members of the NAM, almost to a man in favor of a liberal-trade policy, had been working hard with the members of the International Relations Committee, again overwhelmingly on the liberal-trade side, to draft a 400-page research report. The National Electrical Manufacturers Association had on the surface been one of the most active of the trade associations on the issue of protection; yet a close view reveals that it had taken no position. Many trade associations and also many major companies adopted the permissive pattern, evading an official position while permitting action which smacked of one. Executives of trade associations expressed concern over the danger of prejudicing their organizations' strength by attempting to take stands on issues on which unanimity was absent.
