The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1911-08-11
MASTERS OF THE WORLD

MASTERS OF THE WORLD
Daily People, New York City:
We are masters of the world now
Henceforth governments must take
a back seat. They can neither
make war nor peace as long as we
are united and control iron and
steel. And in dealing with the
association they can only buy at
one price.
Such is the statement made at
Brussels, Belgium, on July s, by
delegate to the international steel
conference.
How near true is it? The Unit
ed States Steel corporation alone
has a gross yearly revenue of APP
proximately $4,000, 900, 900, which
is far greater than that of any
single government in the world.
The following figures show at a
glance the power" of the Aneri-
can Steel Trust so far as it is to be
measured in money revenue:
German Empire $50, 900, 900
Russian Empire l ,451 900, 900
United States-- Jas, 900, 900
france ----------- /lo ,OOO,UOO
Great Britain . 7O1 900, 900
Austria Hungary $50, ZOO, 900
The yearly revenue of the Ameri-
can Steel Trust is thus as large as
that of Germany and Russia COM
bined. 1t exceeds the united in
come of France, England Austria
and India. The figures quoted
above for Germany include the
revenues of the different German
states as we'll as the revenues of
the empire. The figures for the
United States are for the federal
government alone, and do not take
in the revenue of the separate
states.
The United States Steel corpor-
alton has more money at its dis
posal than all of the Central Ameri-
can and South American govern
ments put together.
A single scratch of the pen by
Ebert H. Gary, chairman of the
Steel Trust will affect the wages of
more men than all the government
orders from Panama to Patagonia
or from Saint Petersburgh to Pek-
ing. The Steel Trust takes in al
most as much money in day as
Turkey does in a year. Italy's
revenues for a week are less than
those of the Steel Trust in a single
swing of the sun across the sky.
The net profits of the trust last
year-the amount of money dis
tributed to the stockholders-were
SIG, 73S, 900, as against the entire
revenue of Brazil for the year
S118, 100000.
International steel conferences
are no new thing. They have
been going on for years. This is
one of the reasons why, according
to one group of economists, there
is not and cannot be an alright
worldwide steel and iron combine.
The steel and iron men of America,
Europe and the east are joined in
common membership in what is
called the Steel Institute. 1t was
the institute that met in Brussels
last week, and to which Gary and
his associates were accredited dele
gates.
Out of a total annual production
of 81 100000 tons of steel and 61,-
100000 tons of pig iron the mem
bers of the Steel Institute make all
but about one million tons of each.
In that respect the iron and steel
industry is almost absolutely per-
feet in its organization.
1t is asserted now, as it has been
many times heretofore, that there
are now, and at frequent periods
in the past have been, internation-
al agreements as to the price of
steel rail and structural steel, based
on the different government tariffs.
AS against this is the fact that steel
mills all over the world are in con-
slant competition for government
and other railroads,
bridges and all kinds of equipment.
There was an outcry not long ago
in England because an Argentine
battleship went to America. The
Yankees, as they are still almost
universally called abroad, have
switched many South African con-
tracts from the British and German
steel and iron combines.
This is the basis of the argu-
ment against an international steel
trust-namely, that national inter
ests are so diverse they can never
be brought into international trade
harmony. The steel combines of