The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-25

N ASnlnstont Apih -A.--All conita1AhaA respondenee which passed between President Roosevelt, Attorney General Ronaparte. and Commissioner Herbert Knox smith of the buruea of corporation7. in 1907. about government antitrust suit against the International Harvester company was sent to the Senate today rom the files of the department of jus tice.
 Ordered Suit Stopped
 One letter from Colonel Roosevelt to AIr. Bonaparte, written at oyster Bay At1- gust p, 1907. said the colonel had had l conferences with George w Perkins about the companys s affairs. and directed MT. Bonaparte not to file the suit then. but 10 go over the matter with Commits 1 sioner smith and MT Perkins. | A letter from Commissioner Smith to the colonel on September sl, told of con- 1 ferenees with Mir. Perkins and state conl- missioner smiths objection to proseeu- tion at that time. The commissioner wrote that he thought the question of the companys guilt or innoeense was merely technical question and told of q conference with MT. Perkins on August T.
 Were Going to Fight Commissioner smith wrote that Ar Perkins concluded with great emphasis that If. after all. the endeavors of this company and the other Morgan interests co uphold the policies of the adminis- tration and to adopt their methods of | modern publicity this company was now going to be attacked in purely technical case the interests he represented were | going to fight"
 | Further on in the same letter Mir. smith l wrote:
 While the administration has never hesltated to grapple with any financial | interest, no matter how great, when 1t is believed that a substantial wrong is being committed, nevertheless 1t IS a very practical question, whether We will throw away now the great influence of the so-called Morgan interests, which up to this time have supported the advanced policy of the administration. both in aen- eral principles ana in the application thereof to their specific interests. and to place them generally n' opposition.
 Believed Perkins Sincere
 T believe Mir Perkins statement that his interests would necessarily be driven into active opposition, was a sincere one. and in fact. l can hardly see how those great interests scan take any other atti- tude should this prosecution be started and the final adoption of this policy be made public"
 In another portion of the letter, Com missioner Smith reported MT. Perkins as having said substantially that the stand ard oil people in New York were giving him the laugh for having thought he was trying to be good and keep solid with the administration. and that he now was going to get tho same dose as the others"
 With the correspondence was letter from William Loeb, IT,, the presidents secretary, making an appointment for MT. Bonaparte to talk the business over.
 Roosevelt's Letter
 The Presidents letter to the Attorney General follows
 "oyster Bay, N. r., August 9. 1901. My Dear MT. Attorney General:
 "Mr. George w. Perkins of the Inter- national Harvester company has just I called upon me, and submitted to me cer- tain papers of which I enclose copies. According to these papers. and MT. Per- lSins' statement, it would appear that the Harvester company has repeatedly. on it's own initiative. asked that US business be investigated by the department of commerce and labor, through the com missioner of corporations that three years ago the interstate commerce com mission decided that it had accepted what amounted substantially to rebates; that Mf. Moody. then Attorney General, was about to take action on this report. but the Harvester company at once promised to rectify the practices and see that noth- | ing contrary to the ruling of the com mission was again done. This was sat- l sfactory to the Attorney General. and the suit was dropped.
 Lived Up to Agreement
 "The Harvester company says 1t Is In position to prove that 1t has lived up to this agreement. made in May l9o4 Tho Harvester company advances this as a proof that if any illegal action is pointed out, 1t will itself rectify the matter on 1 it's being pointed out It further appears that last December Senator Hanshor- ough got the Senate to pass a resolution l directing the department of commerce and labor to make an early investigation into the character and operation and effect | upon interstate commerce of the Inter- national Harvester company and that In January last, Messrs. Garfield and smith met various representatives of the Har- 1 vester company in New York and a con- clusion was reached that the depart- ment would begin the examination as speedily as possible which conclusion was announced publicly in the press. On March ', Commissioner smith notified the Harvester company that the inquiry would 1 be made into the corporation value of it's property, securities and the general man. agcment of it's business. It appears by his letter Of August 8 that Commissioner l smith had begun the investigation, but has not made such progress with it as he would like to on account of his being crowded with work.
 Perkins Wanted Delay
 "AIr. Perkins request to me is that. be- | fore the. company is exposed to the cer- tain loss and damage that the mere in | stltution of suit would entail this in- lxestigatlon bv Mir. smith. as required by Senate resolution should he carried to completion. He explicitly states to me that there would be no intention to plead the examination hv the department of commerce and labor, as conferring any ininlunitv from proceedings by the de- partment of justice, Will you see Mir. Perkins and Commissioner smith, go over
 ICON ~ED ON FACE lol