The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-28

the independents get away with an order. The independents were brought to terms in short order. The Steel trust officials
 indignantly deny that there was any coercion attempted in this campaign. but they are really not serious in the position. They talk that way to save their faces and to protect themselves against charges from any and every source thar they were guilty Of trade tyranny or trying to enforce monopoly. s
 Possibly the market commitments of some of the big plungers who have a con trolling voice in the management and pol icies of some of the big companies would give a good hint as to how far the fight will be permitted to go. This might be an interesting subject for the Stanley committee to take up while inquiring Into the true inwardness of the steel situa- tion.
 Negotiations looking to the big copper merger have been resumed. Not much actual headway has been made nor will
 there be until the Tobacco decision is handed down, but enough is known to
 make It clear that the leading interests are once more figuring on the practicai consummation of the deal which has been taken up and broken off a half dozen times since 1t was first preached about a J
 party and the Rockefeller -Ryan-Cole syn dicate are the most anxious to go through with the arrangements and as they pro- duce about 65 per cent of the metal that comes out of American mines, their wishes may prevail.
 Phelps, Dodge & Co.,, the next largest producers, are not caring much one way or the other, but will probably put their property into the deal, as will Senator | Clark and a good many other in6apen6- ents. What attitude the Calumet Hecia and other Lake Superior properties owncu l in New England will take, Is conjec- l tural. They have heretofore been hosIrrs. The combine if it Is made will be for
 more than $1,000,0O0 capitalization. The
 market effect of the talk about the mer-
 ger this week has been to sustain prices.
 A good many people identified with the organization and history of the Steel
 trust breathe easier and heaved signs
 of relief when MT. Carnegie sailed MT. Carnegie Is known to have been quite willing to testify before the Stanley com
 mittee and many of the Trust insiders
 were fearful that the wise old Scotchman might say things that would not look well in print.
 | He is believed to have been nursing q secret grouch against the management ever slnce IL sHoWeu llSel1 aDle to iSldnu
 alone without support or advice from him and that this grouch was intensified
 by the contemptuous manner displayed by the Morgan control in throwing Car negie boys out of high executive and operative positions. It is not improbable, however that Mr. Carnegie has an ar rangemeht with the committee to appear before 1t on his return from abroad. The street looks forward with undls- guised interest to the doings of the Stan ley committee. It expects to learn a good deal from the hearings and will
 be greatly disappointed if Mir Stanley and his associates do not inquire earnestly after the details of some of the deals whereby insiders worked off their own
 properties upon the corporation. The dis closures along that line would add zest to the proceedings which nothing else could do. It Is the one sore spot insiders do not want to have touched.