Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1904-11-17
ANOTHER TRUST HAS
FARMERS BY THROAT
Agricultural implements Con.
tro|Ied by the International
Harvester Co.
HOW COMBINE WAS MADE
Banks Were Used TO Force the Last
Dangerous Competitor Out Of the
Business, and All COMPETE
ton Is Ended.

Dangerous Competitor Out Of the
Business, and All COMPETE
ton Is Ended.
Chicago, Nov. 17.-Farming imple-
ment dealers and country storekeepers
throughout the west are up in arms
against the recent action of the Inter
national Harvester company in at
tempting to prevent the sale of farm
implements except those of it's own
Manufacture This action is the cul-
nination of a series of steps which
have been taken since the International
! Harvester company, otherwise known
as the Farm Machinery Trust was pro-
noted by j. p. Morgan & Co. some
| three years ago.
| Until the formation of the trust the
farmers benefited by the keen compete
4 ton between the implement manufac-
turing companies, which kept down
prices, but now all that is being
changed, and the situation confronts
! the farmers and the country dealers OF
sither accepting the terms imposed by
the trust or making an effort to COM
bine and fight.
farmers by the Grain Elevator Trust
when they were confronted with a
choice of either selling their grain at
Whatever price the Elevator Trust
chose to offer or of finding some other
way to get 1t TO market, and the other
way was effectually closed by the grain
elevator people standing In With the
sailroad men and discriminating against
individual farmers Shipments
This situation became so oppressive
that the farmers combined among
themselves to build their own grain
elevators. and then when the railroad
refused side-track privileges and Local
tions along the tracks the farmers went
to the legislatures of the granger states
and compelled legislation which gave
them at least nominally equal rights
With the railroads.
Companies in the Trust.
The Farm Machinery Trust was
formed by combination of the Deer
ing Harvester company the Plano
Manufacturing company, the Warder,
Bushnell & Glessner company, the Mill
waukee Harvester company and the
we'll known Mccormick company, of
Chicago. These We're capitalized under
the auspices of j. r. Morgan e. Co.,
at s120,000,000. A New Jersey charter
! was taken in the name of the Inter-
national Harvester company.
There was one western and three
eastern concerns that refused TO enter
the trust, and one of these concerns
had large amount of paper from
different farmers discounted by the
+, banks.
Through its qualifications and bank
Ing connections the Farm Machinery
Trust obtained control of this paper,
Endorsed by it's principal competitors,
ana insisted on immediate payment and
the choice of going into Il receivers
hands or of accepting the terms Offered
and selling out to the trust. Altogether
perfectly solvent and having almost
So, 900 of assets more than its liabil-
/ titles, it could not raise the cash re-
CURED to pay all it's floating debt at
once and so was forced to accede TO
the trust proposition and sell out. Two
smaller competitors We're then easily
bought out.
Graspina Contract.
Then having put itself in the position
where II was the only concern i'm the
United States which manufactured all,
kinds of farm implements, the Interna,
tional Harvester company prepared a
contract which, ii accepted by the inn
plement dealers and storekeepers, will
drive every other implement manufac-
turcr out of business and will give tho
International Harvester company a
monopoly of the hundreds of millions of
dollars spent on farm machinery and
implements used throughout the United
States.
This 1905 contract which every dealer
and storekeeper must Sign or not bo
allowed to handle amy of the trust'a
goods, provides that if the dealer is in
any way interested in the sale of other
implements than those manufactured
by the International Harvester COM
pany, either directly or indirectly. no
shall pay to the International Harvest
er company liquidated damages i'm tho
amount stated i'm the contract. This
sweeping provision applies in case
the employees, agents or partners, or
anyone acting for the dealer, sells OF
handles implements manufactured by
any one outside the trust.
In order to avoid the Sherman law
and prevent prosecution for combina-
ton i'm restraint of trade, the Interna,
tional Harvester company of New Jer-
sey does not itself deal directly with
the retail trade. There has been in,
corporated in Wisconsin a corporation
with sl,000.0 900 capital, known as the In
ternational Harvester company OF
America. This Wisconsin company buys
the product of the New Jersey COM
pany. The New Jersey company does
not do business throughout the United
does. The Wisconsin company, so far
as appears. has no visible assets The
factories, patents and the manufac-
tured product are owned by the New
Jersey company. 1t is by this shift that
the trust seeks to avoid prosecution or
legal responsibility for these monopol-
istc contracts.
Controls Binding Irvine.
The trust also controls the the bind-
ing Irvine, of which millions of dollars
and binders. When the Independent
Irvine manufacturers who had sold
their Irvine in 1904 to the independent
dealers they found that the trust had
already forced the independent dealers
to sign the trusts contract and the in
dependent Irvine manufacturers could
find no market for their product, even
at a lower price. This blow drove out
of business many independent Irvine
manufacturers.
The Independent implement manufac7
turers have another grievance besides
the monopolistic contract which the
trust forces the retailers to sign. Their
other trouble is their difficulty in get
ting steel. One of the promoters of the
International Harvester company is e.
III. Gray, chairman of the executive
COMMITTEES of the steel trust. Through
his connection with both the farm ma
chinery trust and the steel trust, each
works in with the other.
Weinsheimer Gets Stay.
New York, Nov. 15.-Philp Vein
sheimer, the former labor leader, who
was yesterday sentenced to state
prison, today secured a temporary stay.