The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-01-11
PLANS TOFIGHT TRUSTS
Carnegie Going Into Sheet Steel,
Wire, Tin Plate and Coal.
]. P1ERPoNT MoReANs INTEREsT.

Banker aud Railroad Combine viii
Aid National Tube Company-Pipe
war viii BE Ritter-President OF
Trust Declares Prices VIII Fail.
Pittsburg Jan. 10.--Andrew Carnegie's
decision to engage in the pipe business, it
is stated here, means a war of millions
between Carnegie on one side and j.
Pierpont Morgan and the railroad inter
ests of the country on the other.
Mr.. Morgan is the money power behind
the National Tube company, the $4,000,
900 combine nov controlling the pipe
trade. Officers Of the company say they
will not sit idly by and allow Mr.. Carne-
gle to engage in the business without re-
taliating.
Joshua Rhodes, chairman of the board
of directors of the National company,
said, 'Prices win drop as soon as the
new Carnegie plant is put into opera
ton" Other officers limited that with all
the advantages they possess in the way
Of money, supply of raw material, etc,
there is nothing to prevent them engaging
in the rail and steel structural business in
opposition to Mr.. Carnegie.
Mr.. Morsan's control of the railroads
from the Atlantic to the Pacific favors
them in the matter of rates and supply
of cars.
Details such as the number of men to
be employed when the $12,000000 tube
plant at Conneaut is to be ready for oper-
atoms cannot be obtained now. In all
probability the works will be about as
large as the National plant at McKees-
port and will employ 5000 or 5000 men.
One important development yesterday
was the news that all mills to be erected
in the future by the Carnegie company
will be built at Conneaut. This will be a
severe blow to Pittsburg.
Going Into Sheet Steel.
1t is stated the Carnegie company will
soon announce its intention of engaging
in the sheet steel trade also. Along with
the original plan to erect the mammoth
tube works at Duquesne on the Monon-
gahela river it was proposed to build
there the largest sheet mills in the world
plant of about 80 miles, to cost about
100000.
Wire, tin plate and coal are other lines
in which Mr.. Carnegie will also engage.
When he announces such intentions, he
will have the trusts now controlling these
trades after him, and the fight for trade
will he bitter.
Carnegie's announcement about the
tube mills was a surprise to the officials
of the National Tube company Recent
~ they gave up a well defined plan to
erect an open hearth steel plant in con
nection with their Riverside works at
Wheeling which was to cost about So
100000 and make the company independ
ent of the market for it's supply Of steel
1t is said that this project was aband',a-
ed through an Understandable vita he
Carnegie and other concerns on W. ch
the tube trust draws for a large part of
its supply of steel.
The Carnegie company is now turning
out such immense quantities of raw steel
that it will have to engage in other lines
to work up this material, it being impos-
sible to sell it all. This and the refusal
of the railroads to reduce rates caused
the decision to build at Conneaut. The
railroad combination is now charging is
cents per 100 pounds for iron and steel
articles from Pittsburg to New York and
to Chicago. 1t has haggled over pro
posal to reduce this to 10 cents or even
Is cents per 100 pounds.
The Carnegie company can ship steel
from Conneaut harbor to New York for
cents per 100 pounds, and steel has ac
tually been sent to Duluth for so cents a
ton, trip of 900 miles.
1t is also asserted that coal can be sent
and has been sent on grain vessels from
Buffalo to Chicago for / cent per 100
pounds and that steel can be sent from
Buffalo to New York by way Of the Fri,
canal for so cents per ton. These figures
are considered so startling by iron and
steel men that they feel that in many
nays way the proposed Carnegie lake plant
will be able to sweep away every oppos
ing obstacle.