The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1908-04-29
PRESIDENT PRODS
CONGRESS AGAIN
Continued from second page)
ARE SUCH LAWS NEEDEDp

President Says Yes, and Gives an Ex.
ample of Sinuosity.
Allegations are often made to the eff
feet that there is no real need for these
laws looking to the more effective con
troll Of the great corporations, upon
the ground that they will do their
work we'll without such control. call
your attention to the accompanying
copy OF report just submitted by
Mr.. Nathan Matthews, chairman of
the finance commission, to the mayor
and city council Of Boston, relating to
certain evil practices Of various cor
porat1ons which have been bidders for
furnishing the city with iron and steel
The report shows that there have been
extensive combinations formed among
the various corporations which have
business with the city OF Boston, in:
Guiding, for instance, carefully
planned combination embracing prac
tically all the firms and corporations
in the United States engaged In manu-
featuring or furnishing structural steel
for use in any part of New England
1t affected the states the cities and
towns, the railroads and street rail-
ways, and generally all persons hav.
ing occasion to use iron or steel for
any purpose in that section OF the
country. AS regards the city of Bos-
ton the combination resulted In par.
ceiling out the work by collusive bids
plainly dishonest and supported by
false aff1rmatdOns.
In its conclusion the commission
recommends as follows: Comment
on the moral meaning of these meth
DDS and transactions would seem
superauous, but as they were defended
at the public hearings of the commits
sion and asserted to be common and
entirely proper incidents of business
life, and as these practices have been
freely resorted to by some of the
largest industrial corporations that the
world has ever known, the commission
deems it proper to record it's own opin-
ion. The commission dislikes to be-
lieve that these practices are, as al
legged, established by the general Gus
tom of the business community; and
this defense itself, If unchallenged,
amounts tn grave accusation against
the honesty of present business meth
DDS.
To answer an invitation for public
or private work by sending in what
purports to be genuine bids, but what
in realty are collusive figures purpose
" made higher than the bid which is
known will be submitted by one of
the supposed competitors, is an act
Of plain dishonesty To support these
Interpretations by false affirma.
tons in writing that bids are sub.
mitted in good faith and without
fraud, collision, or connection with
any other bidder, is a positive and
deliberate fraud. The successful bid.
der in the competition is guilty Of OBJ.
tanning money by false pretenses; and
the others have made themselves
parties to conspiracy clearly unlaw-
full at the common law.
"Where, as in the case Of the sBos-
ton agreement number of the most
important manufa cturers and dealers
in structural steel in this country, In
Guiding the American Bridge company
one of the constituent members of the
United States Steel Corporation, have
combined together for the purpose Of
raising prices by means of collusivq
bids and false representations their
conduct is not only repugnant to COM
mon honesty, but is plainly obnoxiou.,
to the federal statute known as the
| Sherman or anti trust law.
| The commission believes that an
example should be made of these men,
| and that the members Of the Boston
agreement or at least all those who,
in October and November, 1905, en-.
tered in the fraudulent competitions
for the Cove street draw span and
the Brookline street bridge, should be
brought before a federal grand jury
for violation of the act of congress OF
July 2, 1890 The three years imita.
tton for participation in these trans.
actions has not yet elapsed, and the
evidence obtained by the commission
Is SO complete that there should be
no difficulty in the government secur-
tnR conviction in this case'.