The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1907-02-15

certain lines under penalties ranging
from IS to $50 for each offence. To-day
the clause is not there but the Trust
salesman says, "throw out these inde-
pendent goods, take our manure spread
or, our gasoline engine, our harrows, our
wagons, or we will start Blank in the
business, give him our harvesting ma
chine agency together with our COM
plete line, throw an extra force of our
best canvassers in here to help him and
swamp you in short order" 1t is not
always stated so abruptly but it is made
just as plain. What is the dealer to do?
He may be independent enough in
spirit but he has family, and can he
afford to "buck the trust?" Incidental
ly such ''competition" as this is hard
for the independent manufacturers of
wagons, spreaders gasoline engines, ETC.,
to meet.
At the time when the Harvester
Trust was making itself hated by it's
buildozing tactics, D. M. Osborne & Co.
very large manufacturers of harvesting
machinery, located at Auburn, N. Y,
began to attack the Trust, using full
page advertisements in the trade papers
to warn the dealers against submitting
to Trust dictation, etc. etc. These Os-
borne advertisements were the sensation
of the trade. The Osborne company
came to be regarded as the foremost
champion of the dealer, the fearless
enemy of the Trust. Dealers threw out
Trust goods and replaced them with
osborne goods.- The immense Osborne
plant over time, day and night, supply
ing the demand for independent goods.
Then, when the Osborne advertisements
were at their fiercest the truth became
known. The Osborne business had been
purchased by the Trust, and for eigh-
teen months had been used as dunn
my to fool the dealers.
1t dazed even the Osborne general
agents, honorable men, who had been
used to execute this wholesale fraud
upon the trade. They had been given
the most solemn assurances, written
and verbal, that the Osborne was an in
dependent company and to find them
selves duped was hard blow. The in
side facts as to the manner in which the
Osborne Company was pressed to the
wall, how the head of the Osborne fam
lily spent days of humiliation desperate
ly begging for loans from Wall street
capitalists and New York banks, how re-
lentlessly the pressure was brought to
bear, and how the order for the final
turn of the screws flashed over the
wires would form chapter of financial
piracy worthy of prominent place in
thessstory of Wall street wrecking expe-
ditions.
Another instance where the Harves-
ter Trust..used dummy competitor in a
manner smacking strongly of Standard
Oil flavor came to light when it was
discovered that the Trust owned
the Keystone Co. located at Sterling,
Illinois. The Keystone Go. under the
management of E. X. Butler, formerly
the McCormicks right hand man, a
giant in the harvesting machine bust
ness, had begun the manufacture of
.harvesters and were making quite stir
in the western trade, especially as they
were assailing the Harvester trust in
their full page advertisements much af-
ter the manner of the Osborne Co. It
proved to be the Osborne deal over
again4a and the disclosure was another
shock to the trade.
1t would take many pages to tell of
the typical Standard Oil tricks of which
the Harvester Trust has been guilty;
how it announced a SELLING arrange
ment'' with the Weber Wagon Co.
which it had in reality bought outright;
how it has lobbied with state legisla-
lures; how it has cajoled officials and
committees representing dealers asso-
Citations; how it has handled attorneys
general and county attorneys; how it
has been repHmanded for attempting
to trick an Ohio court; how it fought in
vain against Attorney General Rogers of
Arkansas: how it spread broadcast it's
false statements denying that it had
been ousted from Arkansas; how it has
tried to undermine the independent
machine companies by claim
ing to own them; how it has warred on
dealers who have asserted their inde-i
pendence; how it has threatened and
bulldozed the dealers; how it has mis-
represented to the farmers in its adver-
tisements; how it has held up the deal
ers on freight rates and how it has held |
up the railroads on rebates; how it is |
monopo olizing the twine trade; how, in
TACT, it has been ready to use any tac-
tics, however unscrupulous, to avoid
lair competition and force trade its own
way regardless Of the merits q itsI
unf,f1a.5