The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-06
AMATEURS MADE
 TRUST ESTIMATES Attorney Guthrie Changes Pol- icy in ShipbuiIding Cases NIXON ON STAND ALL DAY Registers Personal Protest in Which He Asserts That MT. Guthrie Is
 Trying to Place Him In
 False Position.
NIXON ON STAND ALL DAY

l New York, November 1.-The features of today's session of the hearing in the l United States shipbuilding case were the bitter attacks made by Lewis Nixon up- on William Guthrie. counsel for the de- l fendant and representative of the inter- l ests of Charles NJ. Schwab for his meth ods of cross-examination; leading ques- l tions by Mir. Untermeyer, counsel for the complainants, as to the absence of com- petition between the Bethlehem Steel company and the Carnegie plant of the United States Steel corporation. in gov ernment contracts for armor plate, and the entire change of front of MT. Guth- re who heretofore had aimed to bring out the fact that the value of the con- stituent plants of the United States Ship building company was not oyer-esti- mated
 Today MT. Guthrie adopted a line of questioning designed to show that the estimates of value were made by the pro- moter. the vendors and others interested, or inexpert appraisers, and were prac- ticaly without weight in determining the exact value of the plants and the as- sets of the consolidation.
 Nixon on Stand All Day.
 MT. Nixon was on the stand all day. His cross examination was finished and the redirect examination partly com Ipleted.
 At the opening of the afternoon session he presented a personal protest, in which he declared Mir. Guthrie, in consultation with Max Pam, had adopted a line of questioning designed to place him in false and dsereditable position regarding the sale of his plant to the shipbuilding consolidation. The protest was angry and bitter in tone and intimated that MT. l Guthrie had been unfair in asking him l to answer from memory questions about l the finances of his company without op- 1 portunty to look up the details, while l Guthrie had had the benefit of a full investigation of the figures.
 By agreement of the counsel, the pro- test was stricken from the record, but MT. Nixon thereafter during the hearing insisted that if he was to answer ques- tions, he should be allowed to make the necessary explanations.
 Besides asking Nixon about the organ izatlon of the shipbuilding company, the valuations put the constituent com l panies and the methods by which reach- ed Guthrie took up the alleged with l holding of dividends by the Bethlehem l company. an action which according to the charges of Receiver Smith, contein- l plated the wrecking of the company.
 An Interesting Contrast.
 Guthrie placed in contrast Nixon's att 1 titude in demanding by letter to Presi- l dent McIlvain of the Bethlehem con- | pany, that the Bethlehem directors de- clare dividend to save the shipbuild l ing company, and later at two subsequent meetings of the Bethlehem directors. in | acquiescing in resolutions declaring 1t in expedent to declare such a dividend. | MT. Nixon was at the time a director in both the Bethlehem and the United 1 States Shipbuilding companies. He also brought out that Nixon had voted for i the resolution for the expenditures for the betterments of the Bethlehem plant. l This was the means, so Receiver Smith 1 charges. by which earnings were diverted l from dividends to needless improvements. l Guthrie took up figures from the finan- cia reports of the Bethlehem company l to show it's inability to pay dividends. Mir Untermyer, from the same reports. 1 attempted to show that the expenditures l for betterments and new material were excessive and that the company might 1 well have declared a dividend, had it been so desired. He was questioning 1 Nixon about the trip or examination made by Bethlehem and Carnegie officials l to determine means of improving the Bethlehem plant when the hearing closed l for the day The redirect examination of MT. Nixon will be resumed tomorrow afternoon, and Charles M. Schwab may be placed on the stand later in the day. 1 119 04andry), 13 to 10. second: Ben How ard 104 (Mountain), to 1, third. Time, 1 l17A.
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