The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-28
TWO EFFORTS MADE
 TO ORGANIZE MERGER
Planned To Include Packing Interests With a Capital of $923,oOo,oOo. Condition of Money Market
 Made Second Plan Failure

 fendants made two efforts to organize merger in the summer of 1902 and that their efforts to finance the enter prise were unsuccessful in both in stances.
 The first plan was to include the Armour, Swift. Morris and cudahy in- terests with capital of $92S,0oo,ooo divided as follows
 Bonds s141,7oo,ooo.
 Preferred stock, s1s9,I5o,00o Common stock, s612.000,0o0. After the promoters had failed to finance this proposition through Kuhn, Loeb & Co, of New Y Yorlx, the plan was changed 10 provide for capitaliza-
 ton of s525, 100000, but the condition of the money market made it impos- sble finance the modified merger. MT. yeeder testified that L. II. Harri- man, James Stillman and other New York fnanciers were to have furnished the capital and the amount they were to receive as compensation was $l0,- 000,o00
 The story of the two proposed mer- gers was told chiefly by the reading of contracts of agreements entered into by interested parties to the jury by counsel for the government. who then offered the documents in evidence. The late Gustavus F. Swift was to have been president of the merger. Ed ward Morris and Michael Cudahy were to have been vice presidents, and J. ogden Armour chairman of the exec utive and finance committees. The witnesses told of the organiza- tion of the National Packing company March IS, 1903, but denied it had any connection with the proposed merger Mir. Needer was on the witness stand when court adjourned. lie will re- sume his testimony tomorrow and 1t is expected will conclude before noon It Is believed that his cross examina'- tion will be brief. as he had been an unwilling witness for the government because of his close relations with the | packers since 1885.
 Henry veeder, son of A. II, Needer who is said to have acted as secretary Tor. the old packers pool, known to the government under the. name of Post office box No. 2i7." will be the next | witness.
 Details of Merger Further details of the S5,000, 900. GOO meat corporation planned by packers in 1908 were recited by Albert il. veeder attorney for Swift & Co. when he to- | day continued his drastic story of the inside dramatic history of the combina- tion. For the first time in the trial, which is staged before United States District Judge Carpenter, Michael Cudahy was named as one of the four promoters of the mammoth meat combination by yee- der.
 Needer introduced contract dated July Is, l9Je, by the terms of which Cudahy became a partner Of J. ogden Armour, Gustavus r. Swift and Edward Morris in the proposed merger. Each of them deposited $lvuU.000 ln local bank as an evidence of good faith and earnest In carrying out the plan, 1t was testlned.
 Contract Read To Jury The contract along with six other agree ments was read to the jury and offered in evidence by the government counsel Inability to obtain loan of $95,OJ0,oJO from Kuhn Loeb and company was re-
 sponsible for the failure of the gian, meat merger according to Needer Wit Hess told also how the plckers' pool at-
 auired by purchase six competing con- cerns in 19o2 and how, in March, l903
 
 sanized with u capital of $l500O,000. Reference was made to the old pack
 CTS pool. The only name by which the
 pool which held secret meetings prior to 1903 was known was postoffice box
 No 247, according to governmental coun-
 sel.
 This mysterieus fact, the government alleges, was method devised to defraud
 the government in pooling prices, but AII
 Veeder mentioned no names and could
 remember none. t
 Further secrets of the combinations, with
 its $500000.000 capitalization, which was
 baked through the failure of eastern
 bankers to loan s90.000,000, were expected
 to develop through the testimony of Mr.
 Veeder
 Was the appraisel of the properties
 ever nader? was question.
 T think the work was completed but no final report made" he answered.
 Mir Veeder said that under the merger
 agreement each of the contracting par
 ties was required to turn over at least 5D
 per cent of the stock of the concerns 1t
 was proposed to consolidate
 Witness produced the contracts made
 by Armour, Swift and Morris in June Of
 1902 for the purchase of six competing companies prior to the organization of
 concerns acquired by the combination at
 that time were the United Dressed Beef
 company of New Jersey, Fowler Packing
 COulpdHy, AnSlO-AIntT1cd1l FToNlSlOllS
 company, G. P. Hammond company, Om-
 aha Packing company and the St. Louis
 Dressed Beef and Packing company.
 MT. Butler questioned Mi. yeeder at
 length regarding the agreement entered into in 1902 between the Armours and
 Swifts and Morris interests to form q
 $5O0.000OO0 merger of packing companies.
 Witness said an elaborate examination of
 the packers books was mace by expert
 accountants and the properties appraised by a committee of experts, consisting of Thomas Connors, Thomas E. Wilson and Horace c. Gardner.
 Begun in 1902 Witness said the combination began ne-
 gotiations for the purchase of Schwarzs child & Sulzberger in July, 1902, but the purchase was never consummated, though
 in July 19D2, Michael Cudahy became a
 party to the agreement for the merger,
 and the Cudahy Packing company was
 taken into the combinations.
 M The government brought out that all of H>s~, contracts for the purchase or com-
 Reting concerns contained clause pro- 'hibiting those making the sale from en-
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