Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-17

cash and turned THEM into the American
company, the stock of which he sold to
the former owners OF the mills If they de-
sired to have It. He gave them for every
800 they would have received for their
plant 800 of preferred and 500 of COM
mon stock, thet witness said.
In reply to question by Mr.. Clarke the
witness stated he supposed those who took
the, stock probably delt that the. 800 OF
preferred stock paidsthem for their plants,
while the common stock was in the nature
of bonus. The idea was that the plants
were worth more in 'combination than they
were without combination, and so they
naturally got more for them.
The advances on the price of tin plate
from $3.50 to A.65 a box had followed the
prices of materials entering into the tin.
Pig tin had more than doubled in the time
the above increase of price had taken
place.
Half of the mills not in the American Tin
Plate Company are non-union mills. These
mills sell tin rather above the price asked
by the combination.
At 40 o'clock the commission reassem-
bled after recess, and Mr.. Reid was re-
called and asked the cost of a ten-mill plant
for turning out sheet tin. He said that a
ten-mlll plant tina would have cost 500. 000
rev years ago would today cost $4,000
or s6oo,ooo, and that it would take at least
sZoooo as running capital for such plant.
The National Steel Company.
VIM. E. Refs of Chicago. president of the
National Steel Company then went on the
stand. This company was organized Feb
ruary, 1s99. He said his company keeps an
ONCE in New Jersey, where 1t is chartered.
The company Is capitalized at 500 900 900,
OF which S27, 100000 is preferred and $32-
100000 common stock. When the National
Steel Company was organized Mr.. Refs had
steel mill, which he put in the combina-
ton, receiving for 1t all stock
He got 500 of preferred stock for every
800 valuation placed on the plant, and got
another 800 of common stock in addition.
The price at which he put his company in
the combination was the same he was
offered by another company. The com
pany owned mines in Michigan, which they
have lately acquired They also own nine
boats on the Great Lakes, which have a
capacity of a million tons of steel, a little
less than the capacity of the company's
steel mills.
Mr.. Refs said that the idea that the steel
manufacturer has advantage Of the ad-
vanced prices in steel is erroneous For
instance, In August he said they sold steel
bflletS for S21 a ton, yet the market quo
tation showed that the price was from s3s
TO S44 ton. Their continuing contracts
bad to be filled at fixed prices, and they
could not take advantage of any advance
In the price until they got rid of their old
contracts. Then too, a small amount of
steel may be sold at a high price to meet
some ones urgent necessity, and the price
is neralded all over the country as the
ruling price. That was the case with the
steel billets that sold at S44 a ton.
About half of the employees Of his COM
pany are in the Amalgamated Association
OF Steel. Iron and Tin Workers, and the
prices they fix by agreement with the COM
pany are applied to all employees in their
trades of his company.
The National Steel Company does not
need any tariff on steel billets, because not
any of them are imported. They are indi-
rectly interested In the tariff on tin plate.
They manufacture steel billets only on Or
ders. and do not pile their product up for
possible sale in the future The National
Steel Company has between LOCO and l, 100
stockholders.
Before the combination of the steel COM
panies into the NATIONAL the aggregate MINI
Der of stockholders III the various concerns
taken was much greater than those in
the national now. There were probably 100
stockholders then to one now.
Mr.. Refs was on the stand when The
Stars report was closed.