The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-08-13
BY Associated Press.

gument and conclusions of the socall-
ed Townsend report are based upon
clearly erroneous statements of we'll
known facts is the opening assertion
in a reply by Edgar Baycroft, counsel
for the international aHrvester Com
pany, filed today with the House steel
trust" investigating committee in an
sWer to charges made by Burnette D.
Townsend, special agent of the de-
partment of justice in 1908. The Town
send report was filed with the COM
mittee short time ago.
Nearly every important statement
of fact relating to the purpose of
the investigation, the reply continues,
is either grossly inaccurate or entire
ly untrue. The general inaccuracy of
the report is shown by it's misstate-
ment even of the names of the presi-
dent and chairman of the board of
International Harvester Company. and
the names of the voting trustees, al
though they were all widely known
and matter of public record for four
years prior to the making of the re-
port.
The fundamental charge of a combi-
nation to create a monopoly is based
by the report on the charge that the
knotter in the self binder is protected
by patents and that the International
owns the patents on all best types
of knotters. The truth is that there is
no patent whatever on the essential
part of any type of knotter and there
has not any such patent been in force
since 1896, when the Appleby patent
expired.
This fact not only appears on the
records of the patent Office. but is
KIN gwn to every manufacturer OF self
binders and to every principal dealer
in them Neither are there any exist
ing patents upon any essential part
of the grain binding machine. The
many basic patents had all expired in
1895 and there have been no substan-
tial patented improvements since 1890
twenty years ago-while the life OF
a patent, as is well known, is only
seventeen years.
The statement OF the Townsend re-
port that of the nine different types
of grain binders purchased by the
international, all but three have been
abandoned and that repairs are not
furnished for any others is branded by
Attorney Bancroft as ''notoriously and
absolutely false" He further says
that repairs for every type then Cat
the time of the report,) were and have
ever since been finished by the Inter
national when and wherever called
for.
THE reports charge of a binder
twine trust" is without any foundation
whatsoever" declared the reply, which
also states that the International has
had the vigorous competition of one
large and six smaller twine manufac-
turers in addition to the seven state
penitentiary twine mills"
In reply to the charge that compe-
tftion has been largely suppressed, Mr..
Bancroft cites the names of eight
firms which he declares are all active
competitors.
AS to the charge that the Interna-
tional receives rebates from railroads
and special concessions from the
United States Steel corporation, the
reply declares that the Harvester com
pany's relation to the United States
Steel corporation is not different from
it's relations with the competitors OF
the steel corporation" and that during
the last seven years 1t has bought
from the steel corporation 10 per cent
of it's total needs, while It purchases
80 per cent from competitors of the
United States Steel corporation, the
rest of its needs having been supplied
by the International's subsidiary cor
porations, the Wisconsin Steel Com
pany.
AS to the charge Of increasing
prices, the international asserts that
instead - increasing them, it's in
f1ience has been to prevent increases
On the subject of foreign prices,
''the international denies that peren-
NAL falsehood that agricultural i'm
elements are sold abroad cheaper than
at home" and declares that the gov
ernment's own investigation, pub
lished in the daily consular and trade
reports of February, March and April,
1909. refutes such assertions.
AS to the charge that the Inter
national is a trust the reply says that
II was not a merger of existing cor
porations. but a new one in which
500. .ooo. 900 was invested by persons
not Heretofore in the harvester in
dustry.
Finally the International denies that
any plants purchased by it were
closed or abandoned.