The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1912-02-01
DENIES RESTRAINING OF TRADE
OR VIOLATION OF ANTI
TRUST LEGISLATION.
HAS CHEAPENED STEEL PRICES
And Has Largely Increased the Steel
Business. Competitors Have In
creased in Numbers and Many
Have Prospered.
(Bp Assoclarea Fress.l

(By AsSoctdIed FresS.)
Trenton, N. j., Feb. 1.-The United
States Steel Corporation today filed
its answer to the petition of the Fed
eral government in which the court
prayed to adjudge the steel company
Illegal and in restraint of trade.
Broadly speaking the answer is q
general denial to the allegations of
the government. 1t defends the or
ganization of the subsidiary com
panies, denies that they we're formed
in violation of the. Antitrust act,
claims that they were a normal and
necessary development of the times.
and insists that instead of restraining
trade or commerce, they have deveI-
oped and increased the same.
The answer is made in the name
of the United States Steel corpora
tion and its various subsidiary COM
panies, and it is Joined In by the
following individuals: ]. Pierpont
Morgan, Ebert H. Gary, Charles H.
schwarb, Charles Steele, Henry G.
Frick, James Gayley, william H.
Moore, James H. Moore, Percival
Roberts, Jr., Daniel G. Reid, Norman
B. Ream, George W. Perkins and
Peter A. B. Widener. The array of
counsel includes Lindabury, Depue &
Faulks as Solicitors and Joseph H.
Choate, John G. Johnson, Francis
Lynde Stetson, David A. Reed, Ray
mel c. Boiling and Richard v. Linda
bury as counsel.
The answer begins with reviewing
the events that led up to the organi-
zation Of the present steel corpora
ton and describes how the Federal
Steel company and the Carnegie Steel
company, the American Steel and
Wire Company, and others through
negotiations conducted by J. P. Nor
gan and company. Later, when the
need for additional ore. supplies was
felt, the Steel Corporation acquired
the properties of the Lake Superior
Consolidated Iron Mines. The Steel
Corporation was formed and its prop
critics acquired, the answer declares,
for the purpose of effecting econo.
mics by integrating the plants and
the process employed in the manu-
facture of steel, and to reach the
principal markets Of the United
States and of foreign countries and
increase the trade in steel products
therein.
"If any of the companies acquired
by the Steel Corporation" the an
swer declares had been organized for
the purpose or with the effect of re-
straining trade or commerce, or II
they constituted an attempt at mo-
nopoly or a monopolization of trade
or commerce, neither the organizers
of the Steel Corporation nor the said
corporation had any knowledge or in
: formation thereof when the said COM
, panies were acquired"
t Continuing the answer recites that
: the Steel Corporation made its pur-
}, poses and details of its organization
3 public in variety of ways, and says
that the attention of the officers OF
: the United States government was
4 particularly directed to said organiza
d tion at the time it was effected. Only
e within few months has any depart
e ment or responsible officer Of the
government criticized the Steel Cor
e poratfon as being a combination in re
k straint of trade, or a monopoly.
e The answer then sets forth tha
IS the Steel Corporation has cheapenet
r. the production of steel to the con
s sumer; that It has Increased its for
eign trade from $s,00OOOO in 1901 d
S60.0oOO00 in 1911; that it has no
. suppressed competitions; that tn
. number of its competitors in the Un
. ted States has largely Increased sine
: 1901, and that its stock has bee
= sold several times over and is no.
: held by multitude of small investor
= Continued on Page Five.)