The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-27
A STEEL TRUST DEAL
WHICH WAS MADE POSSIBLE BH
 THE PRESIDENT.
Mir. Bryan Gathers the Dnta-Wui Assert Tennessee Deal Violates the Sherman Law--TO Charge Immunity Was Promised
 Big Financier.

New York World.
 MT. Bryan and the Democratic Ma tional Committee are gathering data to attack President Roosevelt for his sanction the absorption of the Ten nessee Coal and Iron Company by the SUnited States Steel Corporation.
 The Democratic candidate already has charged that the steel trust Is pay ing its debt of gratitude by contribu- tions to the Republican campaign fund, and that 1t is preserved from prose- sutton, while the big stick is haying other trusts.
 Mir. Bryan will assert that the pur- chase was in violation of the sherman antitrust law, because 1t creates a monopoly in restraint of trade, but at the solicitation of steel trust officials MT. Roosevelt gave them executive immunity from prosecution.
 The leading competitor of the steel trust was the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, a corporation with $SO0,0OO,- 900 capital stock. with its plants in khe Southern ore regions, chiefly around Birmingham, Ala. Dividends of per cent on common stock were paid. capital stock were held by pool of men, most of whom are active in Wall Street speculation. Among them were: John w. Gates, Oakieigh Thornes for mer president of the Trust Company of America; Grant D. Schley. stock broker; H. s. Black, real estate oper- ator; George A. kessler, a wine agent, and Anthony Brady a street railway manipulator.
 These men were pledged not to sell the stock, but they could put 1t up as collateral for loans. In fact a very large amount of it was held by banks and trust companies. particularly the Trust Company of America.
 On the first day of last November, when the financial crisis was reaching it's height, between fifteen and twenty millions of this Tennessee Coal and Iron Company pooled stock was held by banks and trust companies as secur- ity for loans. These loans were called or more margin demanded. The debtors dropped out of the stock market and the Tennessee shares could not be sold at any reasonable price.
 This was the situation when the run began on the Trust Company of America, around which the pool circled, and President OakleiEh Thorne ap- pealed to J. P. Morgan for help to save his institution.
 On Saturday night. November 2, MT. | Morgan summoned the distressed bank | CTS and pool members to his art gal lery. He laid before President Thorne l the conditions on which he would save I the trust company, namely. the trans | fer of the independent Tennessee Coal l and Iron Company to its great rival, the "steel trust"
 The steel trust" Is MT. Morgans pet creation. He had in the art gal lery with him his junior partner | George W. Perkins, who is chairman ot the company's finance committed; E. H 1 Gary, it's chief executive, and H. c. l N-tn e a hnI and his associates protested vehement. ly. The men struggled for hours. MT | Morgan's offer was to buy the pool; holding of Tennessee stock at S5 cent;
 on the dollar. The Iast previous sal'
 had been at S1.35. He would pay fol | them in steel trust bonds. which wert
 selling at S5. Tennessee stock, he said
 was not negotiable in the crisis.
 At o'clock Monday morning tn
 squeezed victims surrendered and lief
 the art gallery, which they called tn
 torture chamber. Control of the Ten
 nessee Coal and Iron passed to tn
 trust. Nearly all the stock was event
 ually acquired.
 But there was a question in the min
 of the steel trust meh what the "trus
 busting" administration might do t
 this new combination. Judge Gary suG
 gested that 1t was doubtful how tn President and the Department Of Jus
 ttce would vie wthe transaction. In stantly ,emissaries were sent to soun
 the President. These trust ambassa dors were Henry c. Prick, the larges
 individual contributor to MT. Roose
 velt's campaign fund in 1904; B. Fl
 Gary, chairman of the executive com . mittee of the truse. an active suy
 porter of the President. They were rt ceived at the White House and men
 bers of the Cabinet were called
 consultation, Judge Gary. on return , l Ing to New York announced: "The President Is disposed to do eN
 srything in his power that tS rigl