The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-11-05
ENGLISH STEEL TRUST
One Forming With Capital of
S2ao, 900 600.
WORK OF AN AMERICAN PROMOTER

WORK OF AN AMERICAN PROMOTER
Same Lines as the United States |
Steel Combine. 1t Will Have No Di-
rect Connection With It-nIay Affect
American IrOu and Steel Market.
The English press bristles with para
graphs about the tobacco war between
the American and British trusts, says
the London correspondent of the New
York Tribune, but a far more impor- |
tant movement, which has been in
progress since the spring, escapes OBJ
s%eryation. This is the projected ANAL
gamation Of the business interests Of
the largest iron and steel manufac-
turers in the United Kingdom.
The formation of the United States
Steel corporation was the signal for
similar concentrations of capital in Eu-
rope. The German ironmasters and
steel manufacturers, under the leader
ship Of the Krupps, have been endeav-
oring to organize an industrial com
bination, and the Belgian mine own
ers and iron and steel manufacturers
have been moving in the same direc-
ton. The interests of both those coun-
tries are centered in a few hands, and
these combinations, while not yet eff
fected, are, easy in comparison with
the amalgamation of British iron and
steel manufacturers, whose interests
here are of tremendous magnitude and
inertia. British conservatism has oh.
structed the application of new prin-
ciples to the concentration Of capital
and the lessening of industrial COM
petition.
Protracted negotiations have been re-
quired, but Il combination is being ar
ranged by a group Of the largest iron
and steel manufacturers of the north
and south, with the help of an Ameri-
can organizer. This combination will
control the manufacture of rails in the
United Kingdom and will have a cash
capital of 100000, 900. without a drop
Of water, and when another group or
large manufacturers OF iron and steel.
with whom negotiations are now in
progress, is drawn in the capital will
be increased to l~4O.00O.O00.
The American organizer is John r.
Bartlett, who effected not long ago a
combination in the oil manufacturing
trade and won the confidence of a large
group Of English capitalists by his
skill and practical intelligence in con-
Quoting financial operations. He visit
ed during the spring nearly all the i'm
portant iron and steel works of the
United Kingdom, and after looking
over the ground and meeting the mas
tiers of this enormous industry he sub
mitted to them a plan for effecting a
combination of their business interests.
He attributed the depression OF the
iron and steel trade to three general
causes-first. old machinery and old
methods of doing business, witha lack OF
any systematic department for keeping
those in the trade Informed regarding
the organization and methods of their
principal competitors; second, injurious
competition. by which manufacturers
We're bidding against one another Tor
the purchase Of supplies and the sale
Of products, thereby increasing the cost
Of production and the expenses of man
agement and of marketing; third, ag-
gressive competition from the United
States and Germany in the home and
foreign markets, for which British
manufacturers We're themselves to
blame in allowing the Americans and
Germans to surpass them in technical
skill and in industrial organization. He
suggested as a remedy consolidation OF
the iron and steel industry of the Unit
ed Kingdom into q single corporation
for mutual protection and defense
against overwhelming foreign competi-
ton.
There have been many conferences
and the manufacturers. while intensely
interested. have wanted time for re-
Election and have been waiting on the
fence to find out what corporations
would lead the way. Many of the most
important iron and s-eel concerns IN
the United Kingdom now have the
whole matter under consideration. II
there be an English Morgan behind
this iron and steel combination, as
suspect. he still remains in the back
ground.
While the organizer is an American
the projected enterprise is exclusively
English, ana is not in any way con
nected with the United States Stee
corporation. 1t is not organized in hos
tility to the American combination II
the same industry. but as a necessary
measure of mutual protection and sell
defense for the immense masses OF
English capital invested in the iron ant
steel manufacture. 1t is q signal proof
that while English manufacturers are
not flexible and initiative like the Ger
mans they are gradually adapting
themselves with characteristic caution
and sluggishness to the new economic
and commercial conditions.
Ex-Minister COolidge's Gift.