Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-11
MORE TRUST HUNTING
Bonaparte to Go After Two Bio
Concerns.
POWDER AND HARVESTERS
Equal in Resources to the Standard
Oil Company.
EVIDENCE FOUND AGAINST THEM
Put Many Independent Concerns Out
Of Business by Commercial Sand
bagging Methods.
POWDER AND HARVESTERS
EVIDENCE FOUND AGAINST THEM

As reply to the allegation that since
he has been at the head OF the Depart
ment of Justice he has done absolutely
nothing against the trusts, Attorney Gem
eral Bonaparte will soon institute proceed
ings against two of the greatest corpora
lions in the country, concerns having
gigantic ramifications and almost as much
money and power as the Standard OH.
These are the International Harvester Com
pany, with headquarters at Chicago and
the DUPONT Powder Company, with its
chief works in Delaware. and its headquar-
tiers in New York.
The whole legal machinery OF the De-
partment Of Justice has been at work for
months collecting information against these
two concerns, and the Information is being
put in such shape and secured in such
quantity as to warrant proceedings at an
early date. Just what form the proceed
ings are to take is not yet known. At
torney General Bonaparte, II is stated has
been having the facts collected under his
personal supervision. through Milton Purdy,
assistant attorney general and trust ex-
pert of the department.
1t has. taken greater labor and more time
other yet tackled by the government, largely
because their organizations have been con-
centrated and conducted under the advice
of corporation attorneys Of great intellect
and resource. Each organization has kept
its affairs secret better than any yet in
vestigated.
The Harvester Trust
The Harvester trust makes the bulk Of the
agricultural machinery Of the country. prac,.
tically all the harvesters. 1t has many fac
tories Indifferent parts of the country, hav-
Ing organized them under one company. The
trust. however. fixes the prices on the. OUT
put of every factory, and. It Is charged.
pnrsues the same, taetics that are charged
against the Standard 0i}-undersold iIde-
OF business. II In also charged that in adj
dillon to absolutely choking on conpeti-
ton the trust sells Its products In foreign
countries. after paying steamship charges.
at lower prices than In this country.
The powder trust Is another great COM
bination which the Department OF Justice
now believes 1t will be able to pursue sue
cessfully. A number of months ago differ
ent Independent powder concerns charged
the trust with employing tactics usual with
similar concerns. sitting competition. ..un-
derselling and doing many other things In
restraint of trade. The complaints of the
test and are said to have been provost In
every sense.
Powder Combination.
The facts SO far accumulated indicate that
the powder trust began to put other con-
Germs out of business a number of years
ago. The three principal powder companies
at that time began buying the stock OF the
100 largest companies making powder. BY
various means a majority of the stock In
these companies was acquired, and the
minority stockholders were forced to sell
the remaining stock at q great loss.
IN snort time the three companies
owned all the others and then the three
combined into one great concern, which
now controls the powder field, doing about
as 1t pleases selling to the government
for whatever price 1t desires. 1t Is said to
have the United States army and navy at
its mercy and to reap millions in profits
from the government in the course Of
few years
The powder trust has such a grip on the
business that Attorney General Bonaparte
may ask the President to lay the operations
Of the concern before Congress next win
ter with the view of a recommendation that
the government establish it's own powder
factories and free itself from the grasp OF
the trust.