Los Angeles herald., 1909-02-21
SAY ROOSEVELT
EXCEEDED RIGHT
REPORT CHARGES PRESIDENT
AIDED ILLEGAL TRUST
Congressional Committee Decides Ma
tons Executive Acted Without
Authority-Severe Rebuke
Made Probable
[Bv Associated Press.l

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2O.-By a vote
of to the subcommittee of the com
mittee on. judiciary, which has been
investigating the merger of the Ten
nessee Coal and Iron company and the
United States Steel corporation, de-
cided today to report to the full COM
mittee that the president was not au-
thOrized to permit the absorption.
The committee also found that Presi-
dent Roosevelt was equally unauthor-
lied to direct the attorney. general not
to interfere with the merger, and not
enforce the statutes against it. 1t was
also decided that as both companies
were engaged in interstate commerce.
the absorption was in violation of the
Sherman antitrust law.
1t was found that the effect and pur-
pose of the absorption were to monopo-
lize the iron ore supply of the country
and generally to eliminate the Tennes-
see company as a competitor of the
United States Steel corporation.
The fact that such a report was to
be made created CONSERVATION in the
senate. 1t was realized that if the full
committee subscribes to the findings
of the subcommittee, the effect would
be TO administer the SeVereSt of re-
Dukes to President Roosevelt and prac-
tically to direct the attorney general to
corporation under the Sherman law.
Refuse to Take Action
Leaders in the senate made no secret
Of the fact that they were unwilling to
go that far.
Under these circumstances the full
committee when it meets on Monday
probably will decide to consider very
carefully every possible effect of the
report before deciding to adopt it.
The report acted upon was drafted by
Senator Culberson, author of the reso-
luton providing for the inquiry. The
inquiry was conducted by subcom-
mittee of five-Messrs. Clark of Wyo-
ming, Dillingham;, Kittredge, Culber-
son and Overman.
Senator Kittredge joined with the
two Democrats in making the majority
report No minority report was made
by Senators Clark and Dillingham;.
The subcommittee decided not to
make the text of its report public, al
though the interest in it was SO great
that the findings became known to
practically the entire senate during the
afternoon.
In addition to the findings of law,
the committee reported on many ques-
tions Of fact connected with the mer-
ger. 1t was found that during the
panic days of November, 1907, the
United States Steel corporation pur-
chased all the stock Of the Tennessee
Coal and Iron company except 1920, $50,
the amount Of the stock acquired be-
ing $SO, 1916, ,2S5.
Facts Brought to Light
1t was shown that only $632. $50 in
cash was paid for the stock and that
bonds of the Steel corporation were
issued for $34, ,6S4,97S or nearly $5,OO0,-
600 in excess of the par value of the
Tennessee company stock purchased.
The report quotes from the presi-
dents message declaring the absorp-
tion was necessary according to the
representations to him by Judge Gary
and H. G. Frick on behalf of the Steel
corporation, as a certain business firm
of real Importance in New York f1nan-
cial circles would undoubtedly fail un-
less the deal could be made.
From testimony of a number of wit
Continued on Page Three)