The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-06-09
"A GREAT PERIL AVERTED.

The claim is made in behalf of the
u, s. Steel Corporation that Its act IN
absorbing the Tennessee Coal Iron
Company was done pursuant to plan
to save the country from great peril.
Nominally, TO be sure. this is truc. Pres
ident Roosevelt had entered the cane
brakes OF Mississippi on bear hunt.
He left breathing threatening to the
combinations Of the country generally.
He was not heard Of except as rather
unsuccessful hunter of bears for some
two weeks or more, and then all at
once he emerged and made howl in
Memphis in which he was hercer than
ever against the business combines and
the rich men Of the country. That
speech started the panic Of 1907, which
is commonly referred to as the Roose-
welt panic. When the destruction be
gan 10 get thick and dark, Roosevelt
was frightened at the result OF his
reckless talk He realized his potency
in bringing about the trouble, and
"thc interests found il easy to scare
him. They represented that the only
salvation for the country was to allow
the steel merger to absorb tho Tennes-
see Coal & Iron Company. To this
President Roosevelt gave his consent.
and the Morgan interests agreed there
upon TO exert their utmost power to
stop the panic. They did exert that
power with success that was bril-
liantly praised by ex-senator Spooncr
who. however, apparently were not let
into the secret of what it was all
about.
But President Roosevelt consented
to the merger. it appears, and the rem,
edial efforts were applied The inter
ests made immense sums of money out
of it. Their expenditure, however, was
not for the purchase Of the shares of
the Tennessee Coal 6 Iron Company
The pretensc that what they did as to
this purchase was to relieve the money
situation was wholly pretense, nothing
more. Their money had to be used
TO brace up the financial market, and
stop the ruin which was threatened by
the failure of the Knick crbocker Trust
Company and other concerns in New
York. Confidence was destroyed, and
money had to be put in with lavish
hand to restore 1T, and head of the
calamities which a still more worse
panic would bring.
So far rs the absorption of the Ten
nessee Coal & Iron Company is con.
cerned, the fact is, and this was re.
peated by Mr.. Gates in his recent tes.
tmony, that not dollar changed
hands. No bank reserves were either
depleted or replenishcd by that trans.
action. The pith of the whole matter
was, that "owners of the Republic
Iron & Steel Company were buying
Tennessee shares with borrowed money.
and were threatening a merger that
would be a serious rival to the steel
trust; upon which, having the assent
of President Roosevelt. the big bank
ing interests behind the steel trust put
the screws on TO the Republic company,
and compelled il TO sell its Tennessee
shares so that the steel trust could ac
quire them, and reformation of a. com
petitor could be defeated - All this
was a deal of the steel corporation to
head of rivalry. The Tennessee Coal
& Iron Company was the key to the
situation. If the competing Republic
company had got it, that company
would have been "A formidable rival
to the U. S. Steel Corporation. That
rivalry must be shut off at all haz-
ards and it was done by jumping onto
the company that was lending its
money TO buy the Tennessee concern IS
stock
But 1T was not that transaction at
all that brought on the crush in Wall
street. That crush was involved in the
failure of the banking trust that was
furnishing money To the Republic com
pany TO get the Tennessee company,
and the successful buyers, who had
squeezed the Republics backer, and
thereby shut off all competition with
the big combine, felt obliged to come
to the rescue of the market, which
had been threatened by the efforts of
the Republic company TO compete with
the steel corporation.
That, conciseIy stated, is about the
history Of the whole transactions; and
undoubtedly. if President Roosevelt Is
consent had not been obtained, the
plotters in behalf of the U. S. Steel
Corporation would have subsided; the
Republic Iron & Steel Company would
have got control Of the Tennessee Coal
d Iron Company. and we would have
had two big steel combines IN this
country in place of one
The. above is Mr.. Gates s version OF
the affair. Mr. Gary, in the dispatches
Yesterday morning. gave full and init