The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1911-08-11

America, ana OF America, EuSlduu
and Germany have worked respect
lively in unison at times, it has
been testified, but these agreements
have been short-lived, relating
mostly to rails.
The United States Steel cor
poration has an auxiliary known as
the Steel Products company, which
does an enormous business in eX-
porting the trusts goods to foreign
countries. The question is as to
whether this branch of the business
works in harmony with the foreign
combines. This is denied by all
the interested parties here and
abroad.
Who are the men who COM
pose" the United States Steel cor
poration? Are they in COM
munity of interest that unites
mines, mills and transportation in
one general monopoly? The steel
men chorus an expostulatory mega
tive. Nevertheless, Uucle Sam, so
it it commonly reported, IS pre-
pairing to prove, civilly and
criminally, that the Steel Trust is a
practical monopoly. Aside from
that and on the general question OF
a community of interest many con-
trary opinions have been publicly
expressed.
At the beginning the steel
industry was particularly controlled
by the Pennsylvania group of rail-
road and practical steel men. After
J. P. Morgan found the billion
dollar combination many outside
interests were brougt in, so that it
became more difficult to extend the
community of interests beyond the
steel business itself, especially so
as far as the railroads were con-
cerned, because of rival trunk lines
all getting representatives on the
Steel board.
The chairman of the board, Mr..
Gary, formerly was federal Judge
at Chicago. Then he became as
ISOLATED with Illinois steel interests
and in that capacity he went into
the Steel Trust, The other lawyer
on the board is James H. Reed of
Pittsburg, a former partner OF
Philander c. Knox, the present
United States secretary of state.
He has long been allied with Henry
c. Frick, the Pennsylvania coke
king"
The practical steel men of the
board are James A. Farrell, now
the president; Henry c. Fink and
Henry Phipps. The latter is a
large Pennsylvania Railroad stock
holder and is said to be one of the
richest men in the world. His
fortune is by some put at $780,
600, 900. Daniel G. Reid is tin
plate expert. He is only in
cidentally a railroad man, his
friends say, though he has had
some bitter fights over the control
of the Rock Island railroad.
The men on the board who are
chiefly interested in railroads are
William H. Moore and Norman B..
Ream, of Chicago, and Peter A. B.
Widener, of Philadelphia. The
corporation fnanciers in the steel
directorate were ]. P. Morgan, his
son, his partner, Charles Steele;
his ex-partner, George w. Perkins,
and Robert Winsor, of Boston.
They are men who make business
of fnanciering, and have no close
affiliations with one corporation as
against another. They are profess
sional constructors and recon-
structors. There are two dis
tinctively bank men on the board
George F. Barker, of this city, and
former United States Senator John
F. Dryden, the insurance man, of
Newark, New Jersey.
Others in the trust are Perc1val
Roberts, of Philadelphia, Alfred
Clifford, Edmund c. Converse,
who is the Tool ship man, and
Samuel Mather, of Cleveland, who
is an owner of iron and coal mines.
The steel men themselves say
they are merely a fortuitous as
sortment of capitalists who, as a
body, have no common interest
except that of steel stself. Their
outside interests, it is asserted, are
diverse and many of them are in
rivalry with one another. Widener
is large holder of tobacco, and he,
as well as Ream, is deep in Brooklyn
rapid transit. Moore and Dryden
are on the National Biscuit direct
crate. The Steel board members
are on comparatively few railroad
boards, outside of Pennsylvania
and Rock Island.