The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-08

he at present had no occupation. having ceased to be president of the United States Steel Corporation. He had no connection, executive or advisory, with the Bethlehem Steel Company at this time. he said though he had an enormous pecuniary interest in that company. He severed hfs connection with the manage ment of the company on account of his going abroad in 1902.
 His whole life. he said, had been con nected with the steel industry.
 You are considered the leading expert in that line are you not?" was asked.
 ''I do not take that honor to myself" he answered.
 Has there not been a period of infia- tion in the steel business during the last five years?"
 "There has been period of good de-
 mand.'' .
 But I am asking about imitation Of
 values of properties"
 "so far as properties with which am connected are concerned, there has been
 none. except so far as is due to a period of general prosperity"
 The crest of the wave of prosperity in the steel industry. he said. was coincident with the formation of. the steel corpora tion, but the demand, he said, had not fallen off materially until within the last few months. MT. Schwab said he was | not a defendant in the present suit, but
 he had retained counsel personally. Mir. Guthrie is my personal counsel in this and all other litigation" he said. Mir. Schwab stated that he bought the Bethlehem property shortly after the sale of the Carnegie properties to the Steel Corporation.
 Mir. Untermyer asked if the sale of the steel properties to the corporation at
 that time had any effect upon the values
 of steel properties, but under the advice of Mir. Guthrie. Mir. Schwab declined to
 answer that question or to make any
 statement regarding alleged imitation of the value of the Bethlehem plant Mir. Schwab testified that at that time the Bethlehem slant was in competition with subsidiary plants of the United States Steel Corporation in the manufac- ture of arnor, but in no other respect, the bulk of the Bethlehem plants busi- ness consisted of the manufacture of ar nor plate, projectiles. guns and gun forg- ings and compressed forgings. He did not regard the values paid in securities for the constituent plants of the Steel Corporation as at all inflated. During a series of objections over a question about the amount of steel stock still held by MT. Schwab, Mir. Untermyer stat cd that his intention in ask ing this line of questions was l to show that the prices paid for the constituent plants of the. Steel Corpora
 tion had a great effect in initiating the prices asked for other similar plants, and that if 1t were shown that Mir Schwab had parted with much of his stock it would indicate imitation. During the colloquy MT. Guthrie protested
 against this line of inquiry as an outrage 1 and asked the examiner to suspend the examination until the matter could be certified to the courts.
 Mir, Schwab, against MT. Guthrie's ad- vice. said he had since the formation | of the steel corporation sold a consid- erable amount of steel securities, but that an examination of his account would show that most of the sales were of l bonds. and that despite his sale of some
 of the stock he believed himself to be the
 largest owner of steel stock. He de- clined to state the amount of steel stocks
 and bonds he now had and had sold, declaring that he did not intend to per
 init such an investigation of his pri- vate business by Mir. Untermyer The
 witness accepted Mir. Guthries advice | not to answer in regard to a long series | of questions along this line.
 As bearing upon his knowledge of steel properties in 1901 and 1902. MT. Schwat was asked if he had not been interested
 in the organization of the American Steel | Foundry Association and other stee properties and consultations, but he de. clined to answer except to state that he was not interested except as an un
 derwriter in the foundry association, anC
 to say that he could form no opinior
 as to whether the values of steel plant: | were inflated at the time.
 Mir. Untermyer then turned his atten l tion to the Bethlehem plant and MT Schwabs connection herewith, which the witness said, had existed since tn, | formation of the company.
 Continuing his testimony after reces!
 Mir Schwab said he did not know wheth
 CT any of his shipbuilding stock wa!
 registered in his own name. A larg,
 part of it, he had no doubt. was regis
 tered in the name of Oliver Wrenn of hii
 office. but he refused to answer wher
 asked. if in the case of the shipbuildinI
 company and other industries large part
 of this stock were not carried in thu
 name of his employees. He said that thu
 actual beneficial ownership. so far a
 stock liability was concerned was his. Mir. Nixon had frequently talked ove
 with witness his plans for a shipbuild ing consolidation. Mir. Schwab had m | recollection of having been an underwrite