Devils Lake weekly world. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1911-1914, 1911-11-03

~ Il SAA
Pittsburg, Nov. LIN the light of
the governments equity bill filed to
obtain dissolution of the United
States Steel corporation the appended
address of Judge E. H. Gary, chair
man of the board, must be deemed
remarkable. It was private. heart
to-heart talk recently at one of the
dinners, where the presidents of the
underlying companies had their legs
beneath the mahogany. Though it
was never meant to hit the public eye,
a copy has fortunately been procured.
Even the casual reader may suspect
that its topical heads and amplifica-
tions, when translated into the swollen
verbiage of legal documents, will be-
come the substance of the corpora
tons answer to the bill of complaint
now pending against it at Trenton, N.
j., its legal residence"
Judge Gary sharply states the di-
lemma confronting the big corpora
ton. Of course, the whole speech
must be read, keeping in mind the
consciousness of innocence of all
wrong-doing" animating the judge, the
very matter which the government
.contradicts and must controvert by
evidence. Had the corporation engaged
in ruinous competition. the judge says,
it would have subjected itself to the
charge of monopoly. But had it
agreed with Independent concerns not
to compete it might have fallen under
the other ban of the Sherman law
against restraint of trade. Here was
the Scylla and Charybdis between
whose course it had to sail, or COM
ish geography, the Skagerack and
Cattegat of the voyage.
Government Never Warned.
He asserts that no admonltfons of
law violations were ever heard from
federal sources and that competitors
were always friendly. Constant allu-
sion will be noted to competition as If
formidable, and how the policy had
been to propitiate and. not crush 1t.
One of the strong points Is the rec
.ognized publicity the corporation has
vouchsafed as to its largest actions
and financial status. His eager wish
as directing head to keep within the
law, to gain popular confidence, to es-
cape criticism, to prosecute the stu
pendous business fsirly but prof1tably.
is stated in most seductive style. Fin
of employees and counsels sedulous at
tention to their comfort, asserting that
the executive heads Of the corporations
are sociologists and uplifters with the
best of that kidney. Judge Gary's
address follows:
II think, perhaps, it is we'll for all
of us to have repeated to us and made
more emphatic some Of the important
questions which we must necessarily
consider almost day by day. We are
engaged in q very serious business and
have great obligations. need hardly
say that all of us have been very much
disturbed by the, intimations published
h = ~ e,kr
poration has been the object of ad-
verse criticism by some of the leading
men of the country, If not by some of
the officials connected with the gov
ernment These intimations, whether
based on facts or not, have been most
distressing to me, and no doubt have
affected you in the same way"
Sought General Approval.
IT think we have been of the unani-
NOUS opinion for great many years
that if the corporation could per-
manently succeed it must be ON the
basis of so conducting its affairs and
of continuing such an attitude toward
everyone interested in what it might
do as to ertitle, it to the respect, con-
fidence and approval of everyone; and
it has been our studied effort to mega
tive any disposition on our part to
do,r or permit to be. done, anything
which could properly be complained
of. That we have made mistakes, and
that some of our subordinates, with
practical way of eliminating it, very
pressed wishes, may have been led
into doing some things that we do not
approve Of, we must admit.
"But I think l am justified in claim
ing for you and for all of us that our
intentions have been good, and that
those of us who have been in COM
Ia f,Cih hi ifxy md
authority, whether as officials of the
steel corporation or officials of sub
sidiary companies, have intended to
conduct ourselves in such way as to
be all the time above reproach. How
ever, because of the great posi- n, in
fuence and standing of the steel cor
poration, think it is proper for us
to bring up from time to time, con-
slider and emphasize to some extent
at least, and in a general way, what
is proper and what is not proper in
the conduct Of the great affairs and in
terests with which we are connected.
Countenaaccs No Violation.
I'm the first place, we do not wish
nor intend under any circumstances
to countenance any violation of any
law in force. I cannot say in language
too emphatic that, not only from the
standpoint of good morals but from
the standpoint of our personal inter-
eStS, we must never make the mistake
of Intentionally violating, or permitting
to be violated, any law which is in
existence.
"As good. loyal citizens we are just
as much interested in the observance
of the laws as the president of the
United States even or anyone else. We
do not need to be compelled or urged
by any public official to see the ne
cessity of conforming to the laws Of
the country; we have just as much
obligation in this respect as any other
citizen. You know without my sug-
gesting it, that lawyers and even
Judges, to say nothing of laymen, have
been in more or less doubt as to what
the laws mean. I am not certain that
doubt has been removed up to the
present time.
Certainly we know that in trying
to understand the application of the
Sherman law, so-called, we have been
confronted by two extremes: on one
hand, if we should have engaged in
the destructive competition which
naturally results from unrestrained
selfish competition we might have
placed ourselves in a position which
would justify the criticisms which
have been applied to other large in
terests; that is, we might properly
have been charged with attempting to
establish or exercise monopoly; on
the other hand, if we had attempted
to foster competition and to make 1t
in, 1uoro in OOwico 0iSnOSa1 IN