The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-06-06
MERGER SCHEME
A POSSIBILITY
Early Consolidation of compa-
MES Nor Practical However
SL0SS co. UNFAvoRABLt
New York Commercial Quotes Director
of Interested Company as Saying
Directors Would Not Consider
Consolidation at This Time.

/
While there does not seem to be much
prospect for an early consolidation OF the
Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad COM
pany, the Soss- Sheffield Steel an Iron
company and the Republic Iron and steel
company's Alabama properties, some OF
the iron manufacturers outside of those
three corporations express the belief that
some merger scheme will be finally agreed
upon. 1t Is understood that the executive
committee of the 5foss-S Sheffield company
was never much In favor of consolidation.
The New York Commercial says:
The negotiations, which have been going
on for the last six months looking to a
consolidation of the leading steel and iron
companies of the south, have fallen
through It was officially learned yester-
day that the Investigations, which are
being made into the resources of the
different companies, will be stopped and
the negotiations regarding a consolidation
will be permanently dropped.
The question of the ACCESSIBILITY of con-
solidating the Sloss-Sheffield company, the
Tennessee Coal and Iron company, and
the Republic Iron and Steel company the
three largest iron and steel companies IN
the south. has been discussed ever since
the organization of the United States
Steel corporation. The negotiations pro-
crossed to such point that early this
year a committee of five experts was ap-
pointed to ascertain the value OF the iron
and coal holdings of the three companies.
The report of this committee was to be
made the basis for negotiations looking
to a merger of the three companies.
After this committee had reported, 1t was
contemplated forming another committee
to determine the value of the plants and
other assets of the three companies.
The committee formed to determine the
value of the iron and coal holdings OF the
three companies was composed as follows;
For Sloss- Sheffeld-Walter Moore and ].
w. Worthington; for Tennessee Coal and
Irion-T. H. Aldrich; for Republic Iron
and Steel-W. R. Givens and c. P. Perrin.
This committee has now completed its re-
port and 1t will be delivered to the
directors of the various companies.
Commenting on the report director
and leading official of one of the conf
panies said yesterday: while l have not
yet examined the report, | can say that
there is not one chance in 1000 of 1t re-
sulting in any consolidation of the south
ern iron and steel companies. Our direc-
tors have thoroughly considered the mat
ter, and under no conditions would they
consider entering such a consolidation.
We are thoroughly satisfied with our
own property, and believe that it Is to-
our best interests that we continue to de-
velop our property Independently.
when we were requested to appoint
representatives on afcommittee to deter
mine the ore holdings of the different
companies, we consented. We had no in
tention at the time, however of entering
any merger. We thought that the statis-
tics the committee would collect would
be valuable, and for that reason we con-
scented to the formation of it. Since then
we have looked further into the subject,
and are now more convinced than we were
at first that it would be a mistake for
us to agree to enter any such merger as
was proposed.
II do not know how the directors of
the other two companies feel on the sub
ject. AS for our company, however, our
decision is final. We do not care to carry
the negotiations any further. and. as far
as we are concerned, the matter is end
ed.v
As the company represented by the Of
icer quoted above is one of the largest
iron and steel companies in the south, its
refusal to enter the proposed merger will
undoubtedly end all negotiations on the
subject