Arizona republican., 1912-08-05
A Story of Piracy


 having deep and intricate plots should not fail to read the episode of the absorption of the Tennessee Coal and Iron company as detailed in the re- port of the Stanley committee made public last week The majority report alone is d voluminous document of 24S pages.
 Most American citizens, all of an average degree of intelligence have heard of the formation of the merger and of disconnected circumstances surrounding it. the most important being President RooseveIt's assent to the crowning of the most villainous financial deal ever effected in this country
 The report of the committee cover ing this transaction is based upon the testimony of many witnesses among them, George W. Perkins who as the partner of J. P Morgan performed the fine Italian work. The facts brought out are these: The Tennes- see company had become the most formidable competitor of the steel trust. E. Fl Hartman had pronounce ed the open hearth rails of the Ten nessee company to be far superior to those of Bessemer steel manufactured by the steel trust which was sup plying the most of the rails. used in this country. But the last year be- fore the merger the steel rail output of tn Tennessee company had increas- ed So enormously that it almost equalled that of the steel trust. More over. the Tennessee company was not only dominating the southwest but was rapidly encroaching upon the market of the steel trust in the east.
 The committee is not certain whether the panic of 1907 was insti- tuted for the purpose of taking in the Tennessee company in the re- sultant confusion or whether the steel trust merely made use of an op- portunity which presented itself
 It is impossible to set forth in de- tail the intricacies of the plot which the committee has unraveled but the principal features are these: The shares of the Tennessee company were not speculative and every pre- caution had been taken by the com pany to keep thm off the market. Grant B Schley, never an owner of manager or representative of a syndicate composed of the leading members of the company. The panic found Mr Schley seriously involved and application was made by him to the Morgan group for relief About 10000 shares of Tennessee he was holding passed into the hands of the Morgan crowd as collateral but unless it should be redeemed within sixty days it was to be regarded as sold.
 About this time it was learned that a large block of the stock was in the possession of the Trust Company of America. 8 perfectly solvent concern In order to get at this stock, the pirates at midnight meeting planned a raid upon the trust company The leading members of the steel trust including Perkins and Judge Gary. At the close of the meeting a statement emanating from Perkins was given out for publication and it appeared in the papers of New York and the country that morning. It was repre- for the purpose of devising plans tC aid the Trust Company of America which was described in the state ment as the sore point" It was in evitable that run on the trust com pany should follow the publication ol this statement and the run was begur early. Though in that day $13.50O,0O' was paid out the run was maintained though in the end the trust company withstood it. But sufficient pressure was brought to bear upon it to com pei the exchange of the Tennessee stock for steel trust bonds.
 Remarkable things about that meet ing in aid" of the trust compan! were these: the company had not a any time been in distress. No aic was needed and none had been asked for. President Oakleigh Thorne of tn trust company knew nothing of tn