The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-25
TEN MEN CONTROL TOBACCO TRADE
 OF UNITED STATES Have Gained Their Hold on Trade by
 Unscrupulous Use of Money. Have Deceived the Public and Resorted
 to All Sorts of Schemes. Report of Herbert Knox Smith, Chief of Bureau of Corporations Tells the Method Employed by the Trust to Stifle Competition.
Especial from United Press.)

l Especial. from United Press.) 1 Washington, D. C., Feb: 25.-Ten men absolutely control the tobacco and l snuff business of this continent, with | the exception of the manufacture of ci-
 gars, and the colossal trust which they l manage has within the last few years
 throttled almost every vestige of real competition. They have gained their hold on the trade by the interruptions use of vast sums of money, by de- l ceiving the public, by resorting to all ] manner of schemes, and by the fiercest l price-cutting that the commercial world has ever known.
 These are, in brief, the conclusions
 reached by Herbert Knox Smith, Chief of the Bureau of Corporations, the ! trust-probing end of the Department of Commerce and Labor. MT. Smiths second pstallment of his report on the Tobacco Industry was made public to-day, and in 1t he deals with the or ganization of the combination, it's de- gree of control, it's growth, and it's l present overtowering position in the | trade. In future chapters of his story, he writes the President, he will ham, l dle the subjects of prices, profits, and 1 competitive methods.
 The American Tobacco Company and 1 it's three great subsidiary combinations the American Snuff Company, the I British-American Company comprise some 82 subsidiary concerns in the | United States, Cuba and Porto Rico, according to the Smith report. Ten stockholders are alleged to control sixty per cent of the stock of the B. Duke, (president of the company; 1;
 A. N. Brady, o. H. Payne, P. A. B. Widener, Thomas F. Ryan, B. N Duke, G. B. Schley, the brokerage firm of Moore & Schley, and the estates of w. c. Whitney and W. l.. Ellxins. per cent. of the stock, but for all prac- tical purposes. says the report, the ten ! names mentioned dictate the policy of the combination, which represents a total net capitalization of $316, ,00O, 900. According to the report, the concern controls 82 per cent. of the cigarette business of the country, 77 per cent. of smoking, fne-cut and snuff), and IA
 per cent. of the cigars. Tn 1906 the American Tobacco used in its manu- featuring plants 4O0,0o0,o00 pounds of leaf tobacco.
 "An idea of the absorption of com peting plants and of the changes through combination within the last decade may be had" says Mfr. Smith, from the fact that in 1897 the com
 binatfon had ten plants each producing
 over 50,0O0 pounds of tobacco or snuff
 per year, while there were 243 indepen- dent plants of the same type. Tn 1905, on the other hand, the combination had 45 plants of this class and independent manufacturers 40. Especially con- spicuous has been the absorption of large plants. Tn 1897 the combination had 8 plants each producing. over l. 100000 pounds of these products per year, while it's competitors had 46 such plants. In 1906 the combination had 34 plants of this size and the indepen- dent concerns only 17.''
 One of the favorite plans of the Trust MT. Smith says, was to buy up an in dependent plant that had made it's rep utation on it's antitrust record, it's fair dealing with union labor, or it's
 tirne-honored squareness to it's cus- toner's and to operate 1t still as an ssindependent" or 1santi-trust'' concern. Dozens of the plants it purchased out right or controlled were operated in this manner, it is charged. The only branch of the tobacco trade that 1t has not been able to dominate, says the report, is the cigar business and it failed in that ambition only because
 the great bulk of cigars are made by hand, and therefore the small factory is practically upon an equality so far
 
 cerned, with the plant operating thou sands of hands whose yearly output is high in the millions. The Trust is now spending large sums of money ex- perfmenting with cigar-rnaking ma- chimes, and if they are successful in developing them to the required state of efficiency and can control the pat ents, they may be able to command the cigar business in the same manner that they dominate every other branch of the tobacco trade, MT. Smith says.
 '"rhe Combination continues the re- port "has superior advantage over competitors, from the great size of it's plants and from the control of more ef- ficient machinery but nevertheless a great many independent concerns have been able to keep their heads above water and continue active competition. However, he adds many weaker con- cerns have been virtually driven out of business or forced to sell out to the Combination either by reason of the direct competition of the latter or as an indirect result of the vigorous com petition between the Combination and larger independent concerns.''
 Among the concerns alleged to be owned or controlled by the trust are the following: s. Anargyros and Mon- opol, cigarette firmsse R. J. Reynolds, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co; D. H. Spencer & Sons Co.,; Nashville Tobac- co Works, plug tobacco makers; F. Lorillard Co; Blackwel's Durham and R. A. Patterson Tobacco Co, smoking tobacco makers; Crescent Cigar & To- bacco Co.,; United Cigar Stores Co.,; h. ternational Cigar Machinery Co.,; Ack- CT. Merrall & Condit; Conley Foil Co.,: Mengel Box Co.,; Manhattan Briar Pipe Co.,; American Stogie Co.,; Ha- vana-American Co.,; Union American Cigar Co.,; Porto Rican- American To- bacco Co.,; and Henry Clay and Book Go.
 DRANK ACID AT HER MOTHERS GRAVE
 Chicago, Feb. 25.-Called by her