Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-03-12
THE BIG WIRE DEAL.
Iron Age Suggests That Combine
May Pay the Price
TO TAKE WAsHBURN & MoEN
Other Advices Say New Com.
bine Formed Without Them.
The New Concern to Be Chiefly Com
bination of the Larger Wire Nail Com
panies-ts Capital Stock VIII Be
s24,ooo,ooo.
TO TAKE WAsHBURN & MoEN

The statement that the Washburn g.
Moen Company would not accept the
terms of the proposed wire combination
and that the deal, so far as the local
company is concerned, is off unless the
combine will pay $500 per share for the
corporation stock. receives ample con-
firmation. The talk now is thai the COM
| bination will be made without the
Washburn & Moen Co. and some of the
other concerns which it had been ex-
pected would join, and that the capital
stock of the combine will be much
smaller than was first contemplated.
The Iron Age of this week has the
following:
Contrary to the reports current in
the daily press, the Consolidation of the
wire interests has not yet taken place,
since negotiations are still pending.
u. P. Morgan & Co., bankers, some
time since secured options on the plants
and properties of a number of iron and
steel producing concerns identified with
the wire rod and wire interests of this
country in prominent way. These OPP
tons are open until the end of the cur
rent month. The bankers appointed ac-
countants to go over the books of the
different concerns during the last three
years, to ascertain the profits in each
year and the average profits of the past
three years. Expert engineers were
called upon to make an appraisal of the
plants and properties, their reports hav-
ing gone in some time since. 1t is un-
derStood that the accountants, pursu-
! ing methods of their own, reached val
uations in some instances considerably
below those established by the book
Keepers of the companies involved. In
the majority Of cases, however, the OPP
tions were considered fair. ard are re-
ported to be the basis of the settlement
on the part of the bankers. 1t is a fact,
however, that no one concern know the
price to be paid for the business of any
other company. With one large COM
pany, the valuation reached by the
bankers experts is reported to be con-
siderably below that placed upon the
property by those in control and the
question of reimbursement or the ac-
| ceptance of this valuation, is what has
delayed and is still delaying a final clos
| ing of the consolidation
Under prevailing circumstances it is
utterly impossible to state whether the
bankers will avail themselves of the
option originally given, or whether the
producing company will make any con
cessions, so that the whole enterprise
may fall to the ground or may be
| brought to successful issue at an early
date
After referring to the individual con-
Germs, named as members of the big
combine, the article goes on to say:
1t is reported also that s.. P. Morgan
& Co. have perfected contract with
at least one, and possibly two, of the
largest producers Of steel bilIets in the
United States for the delivery of ma
| terial to the consolidated company
Some idea of the magnitude of the oper-
atoms of the concerns in question may
| be obtained from the fact that last
year the aggregate output of wire rods
| by the companies named was close to
| LOCO 900 tons, and it is believed that dur
ing the current year if business keeps
up at the rate at which it has been run
ming, total of 100000 tons of wire
| rods will be reached. Besides this, the
| consolidated company would control
very. heavy percentage of the total prod
| uct of barb wire, smooth wire, wire nails
and wire fencing, and would possess
| oVershadowing influence in many spe-
| cial lines of market wire. One of the
| concerns produce wire rope.
"A very considerable part of the one
required by the consolidated company
and some coal would come to them
|
| ests. The HainSWorth and Cleveland
| steel plants would furnish a good deal
/ of the Bessemer steel required, and the
| Washburn & Moen plant could supply
a good deal of open hearth steel. So far
as wire rods are concerned, all the great
mills, with the exception CT the Joliet
works of the Illinois Steel Company,
would be purchased outright
1T is estimated that the savings in
! freight alone, which would be affected
| by avoiding shipments Of material and
product from one district to the other
would aggregate at least 50, 900, 000 and
emphasis is placed upon the capacity Of
! so powerful an organization to promote
! a growing export trade. In fact, it is
| likely that some of the plants will be
| put almost exclusively on export work
| 1T is too early, in view of the doubt
! as to the outcome of the negotiations,
| to discuss the effect of such a huge CON
| solidation upon prices What competi-
| ton would arise against it would de-
pend very largely upon the course taken
in this respect"
The New York Times of Friday has
the following with reference to the new
combination, under the date of Chicago:
THE plan of the larger wire nail COM
panies in the country to form a trust
has been abandoned, and, instead of a
great combination, several of the con-
| Germs which were the leaders in the
movement to form trust have decided
to form combination Of their own and
to leave the others on the outside. The
companies which are to form the new
combination are:
1.-The Consolidated Steel and Wire
Company, which controls several plants,
one in st. Louis. two in Joliet, ILL.,; one
/ in Cleveland one in Beaver Falls, Penn.
/ one in Pittsburg, and one in Allentown,
! Penn. I. l.. Elwood of De Kalb, ILL.,,
| who controls the Elwood Wire and Nail
/ Company and the l. L. Elwood Manu-
! featuring Company, both of De Kalb;
/ the American Wire Nail Company OF
| Anderson, Ind; the Sclem Wire Nail
Company, which controls one plant at
Salem, Ohio, and one at Findlay Ohio;
| the H. P. Nail Company of Cleveland
and the American Wire Company of
| Cleveland.
1.-THE failure of the plan to form
trust which should include all the large
4 concerns of the country, was due to the
! fact that several of the companies which
were to have become members could not
show a volume of business sufficient to
1 justify the promoters in paying the price
demanded. Some of them were not maxi
/ ing money In quantities sufficiently
I large to make them desirable members
! Of the combination, and after the ex-
/ pert accountants had gone over their