The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1911-08-18
] II
Bancroft. Attorney for The lntsrna.
tlonaI, Denies Having Monopoly b
+ u Of Trade. 81

Washington. d. That the ar
guments and conclusions Of the 20.
called Townsend report are based
upon clearly erroneous statements oe
well known facts ID the opening asser.
ton in a reply by Edgar Bancroft,
counsel for the International Harves-
ter company, filed with the house
"Steel trust" investigating committee
in answer to charges made by Burd-
cite D. Townsend, special agent for
the department Of justice In 1908. :.
The Townsend report was filed with
the committee a short time ago.
Nearly every important statement
Of fact relating to the purpose of the
investigation" the reply continues, lis
either grossly inaccurate or entirely
untrue. The general inaccuracy Of the
report is shown by it's misstatement
even in the names Of the president and
chairman of the board of the Interna-
tional Harvester company and of the
voting trustees = although they were
all widely known and a matter of pub.
lie record for four years prior to the
making of the report.
The fundamental charge Of COM
bination to create monopoly is based
by the report on the charge that the
knotter in the self-binder is protected
by patents and that the International
owns the patents on all the best types
of knotters.
No knotter Patent.
'The truth is that there is no pat.
ent whatever on the essential part of
any type of knotter and there has not
been any such patent in force since
1890, when the Appleby patent ex-
pired. This fact not only appears on
the records Of the patent Office but
is. known to every manufacturer of
self-binders and to every principal
dealer in them. Neither are there any
existing patents on any essential part
of the grain binding machine. The
many basic patents had all expired in
1896; and there have been no sub
stantial patented improvements since
10000 years ago-while the life of
a patent, as is well known, is only II
years."
The statement of the Townsend re-
port, that of the nine different types
of grain binders purchased by the In
ternational Harvester all but three
have been abandoned and that repairs
are not furnished for any others is
branded by Attorney Bancroft as mo-
toriously and absolutely false"
He further says that repairs for
every type then Cat the time of the
report) were and have ever since been
furnished by the International when
and wherever called for"
No Binder Irvine Trust.
"The reports charging binder
Irvine trust are without any founda-
ton whatsoever" declares the reply.
which also states that the Information.
al has had the vigorous competition
of one large and six smaller Irvine
manufacturers in addition to seven
state penitentiary Irvine mills.
In reply to the charge that competi-
ton had been largely suppressed
Mr. Bancroft cites the names of eight
firms which he declares are all active
competitors.
AS to the charge that the Interna-
tional receives rebates from railroads
and special concessions from the
United States Steel corporation, the
reply declares that the harvester COM
pany's relation to the United States
Steel corporation is not different from
it's relations with the competitors of
the steel corporations" and that dur
ing the past seven years it has bought
from the steel corporation 10 per
cent of it's total needs, while it has
purchased 80 per cent from competi-
tors of the United States Steel, the
balance of its needs having been sup.
piled by the International subsidiary
corporation, the Wisconsin Steel Com.
pany."
AS to the charge of increasing prices
the International asserts that, instead
of increasing them, its influence has
been to prevent increase, that the self
binder sells at very low price-rela.
lively lower than that of any other
farm implement or machines, that the
selling prices are freely fixed by the
dealers and that the terms Of credit
the facilities furnished and expert
service are more liberal than ever be
fore, that although the price Of raw
materials has increased more than 30
per cent its prices were not increased
until 1908 and then only Z per cent
and that for 1912 a reduction Of pei
cent was announced last month.