The San Francisco call., 1896-04-29
While a Commander in the
Navy He Took a Salary
From a Corporation.
MR.. CARNEGIE's PHILANTHROPY
Merely Went Into the Business to
Help Out the United
States.

WASHINGTON, d. c., April 2S.-The
Senate Committee on Naval Affairs this
morning made public the testimony re-
Gently taken by it in secret sessions on the
subject of armor plate, the prices paid
therefor and the ownership of patented
processes of manufacture, under the reso-
luton of Senator Chandler of December
Is last. The testimony comprises 421
printed pages.
In the specifications laid before the COM
mittee by MIR. Chandler was one referring
to Commander Folger, stating that while
chief of the Ordnance Bureau in the navy
he had induced the trial of the Harvey
patent and the adoption of the process in
the manufacture OF armor by reason of an
understanding that ne should be employed
in the company organized by Mr.. Harvey
and have an interest therein; that he re-
signed his position in the bureau, and
while continuing to be commander in
the navy accerted employment from the
Harvey Company for salary of $4,000 per
year and bonus of 200 shares of stock IN
the company and went abroad to negotiate
contracts with foreign governments for the
use of the Harvey process.
7,
says no offer of any description of shares
or other remuneration was made prior to
his leaving the department January /,
1898.
The Harvey matter had, Mr.. Folger
said. nothing to do with his resignation.
He was with that company only five
months out of his two years leave of ab-
sence.
At one stage in the examination Mr..
Folger said that with his ''present light
and the notoriety of things" he believed
he should not have gone into the Harvey
ma tier. He did not, however, think he
had done any wrong. Much of Comman-
der Folger's testimony under cross-exami-
nation by Senator Chandler related to the
various companies by which he had been
employed during his various leaves of abb
scence.
Commander Folger, in one part of his
examination, said the cost of production
of armor plate was much less than the
Government paid for it. 1t would be prac-
ticable, he thought, for the Governm ent
to manufacture plate, but the question
was, could the Government employ it's
plant at times when there would be no de-
not be a deterioration?
He thought there had been an under
standing between the Carnegie and Beth
lehem people with relation to the bids
they had made. During the investigation
INTO the making of the plate Mr.. Wharton
of the Bethlehem Company indicated that
the two concerns in this country-Bethle-
hem and Carnegie-would not permit the
proposed plant of the Government to be
successful. On this line he said: "If the
Government should compete by setting UP
plant think human nature is such that
the establishments now existing would
try to see that they were not going to be
injured by the construction of the Govern.
ment plant"
Mr.. Carnegie said he would never have
gone into the manufacture of armor plate
had not Secretary Tracy and President
Harrison requested him to do so as duty
to help the United States out of its diff
Guilty when its ships were in the stocks
and it could not get armor.
In reply to further question as to why
he went into the business, Mr.. Carnegie
said to the committee: Because the
President of the United States and Secre
tary of the Navy had told us that the
United States Government was in diff
Guilty, and if the President of the United
States were to ask me to-day to double our
armor plant would do it. If he were to
ask me to go to Kamschatka for the
United States, / would do it. / never
went into this business for money. know
hetter',