Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1911-06-27
|ND|C7 FOURTEEN
LUMBERMEN
.
ODEclAL GRAND JURY At CHlcA
GO GETS DEFINITE
RESULTS.
.'RAp AN INFORMATION BUREAU
which Seemed to Keep Up Prices
0tJfie Competition and Blacklist
Dealers Who Resisted
Extortlon.

Chicago. June 24.-Fourteen secre
talAs Of Lumber Dealers association
xaohghout the West and the Mddl
West, all members of the Lumber Sec
6oeayies' Bureau of Information. wer'
Indicted by the special federal CRANE
1uz4 on two counts of an indictmen
cheyg1ng criminal conspiracy in re-
straint Of trade.
Il y iptimated that either this or
succeeding grand jury will return IN
dIotments against several members Of
he weyerhaeuser family, the lumber
k1ngs, Joseph Rhodes, secretary Of
Frederick Weyerhaeuser and mouth
pleeo Of the Weyerhaeuser interests
ha0ong furnished the grand jury with
impoytant evidence. Three secretaries
escaped being indicted. having been
gtusp immunity baths by appearing
befose the grand jury and testifying
against their brethren.
The indicted men were:
Willard G.. Hollis, Minneapolis. sec.
rotary of the Northwestern Lumber
nous association; Henry A. Gorsuch.
Kansas City, Mo-; Bird Critchfield,
Lincoln, Neb.; E. E. Hall, Nebraska;
Harry C. Scarce, Mooresville, Ind;
Il. II. Hemenway. Of Denver. Colo;
Louis l. Hileman, Colo; H. S. Adams.
Chiltcothe, Ohio: B. N. Hayward. Col
umbus, Ohio; A. L. Porter, Spokane.
Wash; R. P. Bransford, Union City,
Tenn; and A. c. RICHTER, Pittsburg.
Pa.
There were two counts in the in
dictment against each man. The first
count alleges conspiracy among retail
dealers to restrain interstate trade
and commerce between the manufac.
turers and wholesalers. and the con-
sumers. The second charges conspir.
acy to suppress and eliminate compe-
titioR which ordinarily should exist
between wholesalers and manufacture
ers, and the retailer In supplying the
consumer. The indictments are based
o. alleged acts of the secretaries. In
1905. they organized, in Chicago, into
the Lumber Secretaries Bureau Of In
formation. The secretaries, 1t 10
Charged, were official representatives
Of several thousand members of vari-
Gus associations. and according to the
ssce0d count, by means Of letters and
publications in trade papers, have so
intsyfersd with trade as practically to
djeEate classification under which
wholesalers and manufacturers sell
their products.
Appended to the indictments are 100
names Of wholesalers, retailers and
msdl order houses who appeared on the
""Dlack list" Among them were
Montgomery, Ward & Co., Chicago
ooays, Roebuck & Co., Chicago; the
Chicago House Wrecking Co.; The
Gordon Van Tyne Co., Davenport. Ia;
The Morgan Sash & Door Co., Chicago;
tho Foster Munger Co., the Turnbill
Joice Co., and the John A. Guage Co.,
Of Chicago: the Weller Musson Co.,
Spokane, Wash. Stimson Mill Co.,
Ballard. Wash; Roach & Musser,
Nuscatine, Ia; Burkholder Lumber
Co., Minneapolis; Barrett Manufacture
ing Co., Chicago, st. Louis. Cincin.
natl, New Orleans, Philadelphia. New
York and Boston; the Sulcher & Moore
Lumber Co., Orange, Texas.
Judge Lands in receiving the In.
dictments highly commended the jur-
ors for their work, declaring that his
instructions regarding secrecy had
been obeyed even better than he had
hoped for, not one linking Of what he
grand jury was doing having escaped
turing its deliberations.
Power Through Trade Paper.
The power of the retailers organ
lzations was welded through the bu
real Of information, according to the
indictments and by a scheme resem-
bifng an alleged black list published in
The Scout, the trade paper edited by
Arthur l.. Holmes. The Scout was
named in the list of overt acts, as the
means by which the secretaries pub
lished to the trade the names Of man.
ufacturers and wholesalers who sold
TO consumers.
The names of more than 100 con.
Germs, including the big mail order
houses and wholesale dealers from
Pennsylvania to the Pacific coast,
were shown by documentary evidence
given the grand jury to have appeared
in the publication as having violated
the prescriptions of the retailers who
It Is said, retaliated by refusing to
purchase goods from those who had
offended.
The members Of the board of infor.
nation also were charged with having
maintained a system of espionage over
the business affairs of the wholesalers
and manufacturers and having pub.
lished letters and bulletins showing
"unethica" conduct on the part Of the
wholesalers and manufacturers in sell.
ing goods direct to consumers
Complaining Letters Read.
Scores of letters written by mem.
bers of the individual associations to
the editor of The Scout, calling at.
tsntion to the alleged "unethical' &C.
lions of wholesalers, were read by the
grand jury and were collected in the
indictment.
Three secretaries in the organize
ton received immunity fOr les,i. ilI:
before the grand jury.
Each Indictment is on two counts
The first charges conspiracy among
the retail lumber dealers to interfere