The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-06
DEMOCRATS AFTER THE INFORMATION Think Present System of Reporting Is Wrong SMITH AN EXAMPLE Corporation Information Which He Has Secured Is Available Only
 for the Use of the
 President
By JONATHAN WINFIELD

beginning to consider a plan for an amendment to the existing law which provides that the commissioner of cor porations, clothed with authority to
 hunt down the trusts, shall make a re-
 port only to the President, and that
 the data collected by the commissioner
 shall not be available for the use of
 Congress unless the President so wills
 The House committee Investigating
 the steel trust has run up against this
 snag, and, greatly to the disgust of the committed it has been impossible to extract any information of value from
 Herbert Knox Smith, who, as commis-
 sioner of corporations, has been busy for several years. presumably in an investigation of the trusts and large corporations of the country.
 such a construction of the law is
 an utter absurdity," said Representative
 Martin Littleton, member of the steel 1 investigating committee. It IS pre- posterous to think that a coordinate branch of this government has in US possession information needed by an-
 other branch, and that we are to De
 denied access to the records"
 Commissioner Smith, however, re-
 mained firm in his refusal to tell the
 House committee anything about the steel trust except what he had printed l in his preliminary report. The com
 missioner even refused to furnish the
 committee with a table of the informa-
 tion upon which he had based his re-
 port, and he could offer the house in-
 vestigators no aid whatever unless the
 President gives his consent"
 The law creating the bureau of cor pora tions provided that the commis-
 sioner should have authority to probe
 any corporation believed to be a pos
 sible monopoly in restraint of trade He was given the power to demand the
 production of books, documents and | cost sheets and the commissioners s
 word is presumed to be an open sesame
 to the inner workings of any trust in
 the United States.
 | The commissioner investigated" for
 several years that affairs of the Unit | ed States Steel corporation and its sub sidiaries. The Stanley committee Of the House recently was authorized to con- | duct a sweeping investigation of it's own, and after it had proceeded into | the subject for several weeks Commis-
  | mttee in order that it might not take l the back track over some of the ground already covered by the authorized gov ernment agent.
 | MT. Smith appeared before the com mittee, but he told 1t little. His non commital answers exasperated the
 members so that it was stated that the | law must be changed
 | So far as being of aid to the House | investigating committee is concerned, | the bureau of corporations might as well not be in existence. The bureau makes it's report to the President, and the President alone, under the present | law, is given authority tG make the re- ports public.
 During the last national campaign it | was charged that the work of the bureau had been used to extract large campaign contributions from various corporations who gave aid to the re- publican cause Democratic members attacked the idea on the ground that | the federal government had an unfair advantages; that 1t had access to the books of these large concerns while | the democratic party had no such &C.,
 cess, and the trusts were under no ob- | legations to democracy.
 Now the latest muddle has arisen, | and it is not out of reason to say that
 the democrats, now in control of the House, are going to demand a change | in conditions unless the President evinces his willingness to turn over | to the House committee some of the
 data which it has taken the commits sioner several years to corral
 When the steel trust was asked for | it's cost sheets, the expert accountant
 sent to the offices of the trust by the
 committee was told that the cost sheets
 had been sent to the commissioner of
 corporations" and that therefore they | could not be furnished. When the commiss toner himself was put upon the witness stand he testified that the cost | sheets had been returned to the com pany some time ago, and that they | were not now in the possession of the bureau. The House committee was | baffled. It thereupon asked Commits sioner Smith to outline some of the in- formation revealed by the cost sheets. T cannot do this without the author
 ity Of the President" said Mir. Smith. T will talk the matter over with the | President to see if he Is willing that | should furnish the committee with any of this data. In the event that MT
 Taft does not object I may be able to | furnish the committee with some in formation. but, for the present, I must refer you to my printed report" | That caused Representative Littleton and others to remark that such law | is foolish.
 Here we are attempting to show | that the United States Steel corpora tion is combination in restraint of trade" said Chairman Stanley Ger tain information, collected at govern
 ment expense. is in the hands of the commissioner of corporations, but this
 committee, which Is earnestly seeking to establish the truth is denied the privilege of examining the records. This is a most peculiar state of affairs and | 1t ought to be remedied"
 The troubles of the Stanley commit tee were again emphasized when it at tempted to show through the previous investigation of the commissioner Of | corporations that the International Har vester company and the steel trust are
 virtually the same. and the same group
 of financiers are behind the concerns
 Commissioner Smith again called before
 the committee, but it extracted nothing
 from him except that he would talk
 tke matter over with the President
 and that if the latter did not object he
 would furnish the committee with such evidence as the bureau of corporations might have upon the subject
 Commissioner Smith admitted that the bureau had been Investigating the h.
 ternational Harvester company and that 1t had in it's possession considerable infor- ma ation, but once more he was firm in
 his stand that he could give none of the
 data desired by the committee The At torney General had held, said Mir Smith, in excuse of his action, that this con ficential information is only for the eyes
 of the President and that it must not
 be made public even at the request of a
 coordinate branch of the government,
 urless the President gives his consent.
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