Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1912-08-02
STEEL TRUST REACHED INTO
every INDUSTRY AND into
every HOME IN The LAND
REPORT OF STANLEY INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE Terrific EXPOSURE
OF MONSTER FINANCIAL METHODS BY Which OCTOPUS DRAINED
FINANCIAL WORLD AND EVEN DECEIVED PRESIDENT AND HIS CABINET
DURING PANIC
WIDE PUBLICITY AND STRICT SUPERVISION
ARE RECOMMENDED TO CURE PRESENT EVIL

given his consent to a merger fraught
with infinite injury to the steel indus,
try and to the public alike.
THE commissioner of corporations
should be required to report to con.
gress as we'll as to the president of
the United States, at such times and
upon such conditions as it may pro.
scribe, and the law creating this
bureau should be so amended as to
make such reports mandatory upon
the commissioner of corporations.
The enormous earnings of the
steel corporation are due not to a de.
gree OF integration of efficiency not
possessed by its competitors, but to
the ownership of ore reserves out of
Iall proportion to its output or require
ments and to the control and opera
tlon OF common carriers, divisions of
rates, and the liberal allowances OBJ
tanned from other concerns through
lnequitable and inordinate terminal
allowances. The business of produc-
ton and transportation should be abb
solutely separate and distinct, and no
industrial concern should be permit
ted to own or operate an interstate
carrier.
he attorney general OF the United
States and his subordinates should
not be permitted to exercise an abb
solute discretion as to the institution
or proceedings under the act of July
l, 1890, known as the Sherman anti
trust act, or other acts prohibiting
combinations in restraint of trade.
The parties injuriously affected by
such combinations should have ac.
cess to the courts and the benefit of
adequate and sufficient remedies for
wrongs inflicted by such combins-
tions."
The legislation recommended by the
majority consisted of three bills.
One of them, commonly known as
the Brandeis bill is designed to give
an injured party the right to institute
suit to prevent the organization of
combination in restraint of trade.
This bill also transfers the burden of
proof to the defendant corporation
to show that it is a combination with
in reasonable restraint of trade"
The bill recommended by the commit
tee has long been pending before
congress- having been introduced by
Senator LaFollette and Representa-
tive Lenroot
Another bill would provide that mo
person who is engaged as an individ.
ual or as a member of a partnership.
OF as a director or other officer, or
an employe Of corporation, in the
business, in whole or in part of man.
ufacturing or selling railroad cars or
locomotives or railroad rails or struc-
tural steel, mining and selling coal,
shall act as a director or other officer
or employe of any railroad company
which conducts an interstate COM
merce business
The third bill is intended to hit at
the system of interlocking director
ates and would separate industrial
from railroad business.
The effort of the committee to mas.
ter the moves of the financiers who
conceived and organized the steel cor
poration resulted in a mass of figures
which showed enormous profits to
those who were interested.
From Julian Kennedy. an engineer,
the committee traced the development
Of the National Tube company, a SUBJ
sidiary of U. S. Steel, by J. Pierpont
Morgan. He told the committee that
he investigated the condition of the
tube trade and found that the actual
value of those plants did not exceed
S19,O00,000 and that the owners were
demoralized and disheartened." The
committee comments on this situa-
ton as follows:
"Undismayed by this dismal pros
pect. J. P. Morgan G. Co., with an am
azing audacity, launched this new
Yi"''Vu,VuO iuOhOpuIy OI ItS NOuloS
with total capitalization of sS0,000,-
600, and received as compensation
securities of this concern aggregating
S2O,000,000."
Representative Beall of Texas made
a study of the Gary dinners influences
on the steel trade. He wrote that
portion of the report which deals
with them. His comment on them
follows:
Accepting the dinner of January,
1911, as fairly typical of the rest and
the things said and done there as
fairly representative of the things
said and done at the others, We think
the conclusion is irresistible that
the Gary dinners were instituted as
means of conveying to the entire
steel and iron industry information as
to what the attitude of the United
States Steel Corporation was upon the
questions of output and prices and of
impressing upon all engaged in the
industry thatit was the part of wis
dom and prudence to govern them
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