Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1911-06-09
STEEL TRUST RULES
ITS SUBSIDIARIES
Ebert H. Gary So Informs the
House Committee.
Earnings of Subsidiary Companies Go
into Treasury of the Steel Cor
poration When Dividends
Are Declared.

Judge Elbert H. Gary, who is the
chairman of the board of directors
OF the United States Steel corporation,
appeared as witness in the steel
trust inquiry being conducted by
committee of the house.
There is not any doubt" Mr.. Gary
told the committee, that the United
States Steel corporation as the owner
of most of the stocks of the subsid-
1ary companies ultimately controls
those subsidiary companies, including
their management and conduct"
Asked if the Carnegie Steel company
competed now with other subsidiary
companies in the Steel corporation.
Mr.. Gary said:
Il should say it does, putting my
Interpretation on the word. / came to
be frank, and to give you the exact
facts-that you may put your own con-
struction on them.
THE subsidiary companies have
their own directors and officers and
have the right to act independently,
but as the Steel corporation owns the
securities, if the conduct of a subsid-
iary company was antagonistic in any
way it would only be a question of
time when the administration of that
subsidiary company would undergo a
change"
you near the parent company
would control the policies of any SUBJ
sidiary company"
1T might not for the moment or the
month, but when the time came to
elect officers it would"
ut would exercise the recall, as it
were?" asked Representative Brantley
of Georgia.
Eyes, you might put it that way"
Mr.. Gary answered
Are the profits of one subsidiary
concern measured as the profits of
all?" Chairman Stanley asked. THAT
is, does the parent company distribute
the dividends of all?"
THE earnings of the subsidiary
companies" Mr.. Gary answered, "go
into the treasury of the United States
Steel corporation whenever dividends
are declared. That corporation, being
the owner of the dividends, of course
distributes them as it sees fit The
subsidiary companies have no interest
in the dividends after they are de-
clared."
subsidiary companies?"
"Of course their boards of directors
choose them, but nevertheless a sug-
gestion from the parent company, as
you call it, would be recognized"
Gary told the committee that en-
forced publicity and government con-
troll of corporations must come, even
as to prices He said he believed the
Sherman antitrust law was too arch
aic to deal with modern situations
and never could fully prevent great
combinations of capital.
What the United States Steel cor.
poration desired, he said, was a re-
sponsible and official department Of
government to which it could go and
say: What prices may we charge,
and just what can we do?"
Asked if the United States Steel cor
poration was in position to fix prices,
Mr.. Gary said that cooperative busi-
ness methods which had succeeded
highly competitive methods had made
it possible for the big corporations to
influence prices.
1--WE cannot dominate them," he said
ut is not the big corporations that
change prices so much as the small
corporations that cut prices and force
the big ones to come down."