The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-01-14
Refreshing News For the
Poor Farmer.
The Barb Wire Monopoly Gets
a Firmer Hold.
Dun Regards the Business Out
look as Unfavorable.
Wallace's Estate to be Sold-..Other
Business News.

CHICAGO, Jan. 9.-At a meeting in this
city today of the directors of the American
harvester company which, a month or two
ago was organized with the o
capital of S~35,000,000, it was decided to
discontinue the project and the directors
representing the organization in the
different states were instructed to see that
the charters obtained in their respective
states be surrendered.
President Mccormick said at the close
of the meeting: This step has been de-
cided OF only after we were assured that
we could not carry out the objects of the
association. Able lawyers were consulted,
and they were unanimously of the opinion
that under the avs of these states, the
company could not continue in the form
in which it had been started. Therefore,
like sensible men, We concluded to
abandon the whole affair"
The dissolution of the company will
or firms which were merged in it. No
change had been made in the business ar
rangement of any one OF them, and hence
the action of the new company will not
effect them. President Mccormick thinks
there will be no effort to ~reorganize the
defunct company.
1t was only after long deliberation that
the gentlemen composing the Harvester
trust decided to abandon it. For more
than a week the board of directors has
been holding daily sessions in Chicago.
The whole field of the trusts possibilities
was thoroughly canvassed and thought
fully discussed, and the decision was the
abandonment of the present form OF or
ganization. The hard strokes against the
trust were the decisions of the supreme
courts of Illinois and New York
the former In the gas trust and
the latter in the sugar case-that
N corporation may not legally
hold stock in another corporation for the
purpose of controllng it. The interests in
volved were so great that it was agreed
that S50,000,OO0 capital wouldbe necessary
to put the combination upon it's feet. OF
this sum $35,OOO,OOO, representing the
capital stock of the concern, was to be APP
p~ortioned among the several constituent
institutions and Sl5.0 00 900 in bonds were
TO be issued for working capital. When
the company attempted to float these
bonds, the [. s.. trust company of New
York, through which the negotiations
were conducted, instituted a careful legal
inquiry into the statues of the American
harvester company, and as the result of
this investigation declined TO make the
loan upon the ground that the company
had been organized in such a way as
to violate the statutes prohibiting
trusts and similar combinations of capital
to limit production and to control trade.
Other financial institutions were appealed
TO but with the same result. Then il was
proposed to raise the necessary funds
within the company itself. but the various
concerns in the deal, becoming frightened
at the legal aspect of affairs, refused to tie
up their individual establishments where
they would be handicapped by the heavl-
est legal and financial liabilities. Hence,
nothing but dissolution of the American
harvester company remained. Practically
this has already been accomplished, but a
good deal of red tape fOrmality m be
gone through in winding up the last
earthly affairs OF the concern. The board
OF directors today took the initiatory steps
In this direction.
Al CNChAhS pdDCl says 1ut COlldpcc
of this gigantic business, so far as can be
learned, is to be attributed to the secession
of the Mccormick harvesting machine
company, the Deering company, the
W~hitman-Barnes manufacturing COM
pany, and the firm of Warden, Bushnell
& Glessner. These individual companies
were not satisfied with the line of policy
mapped out by the majority of the direc-
tors in the matter of raising prices on the
farmers and the consolidation of the inter
ests OF the supply houses TO the disad-
vantage OF their customers, and they were
81 rebellious at yesterdays meeting of the
directory that before the night had closed
they had determined to withdraw from
the combine, cut prices and annihilate
those who remain steadfast in the pur-
pose to bleed the farmers. A merry war
Is now in prospect. 1t Is each firm for
itself. cut, slash and let die those who can
not help themselves"