Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-08-06
HARVESTER CLAIMS
TO BE GOOD TRUST
(Contialed From Page ~

formed. the wholesale price of sisal
Irvine has fallen from II to 6h cents
pound, and of manila Irvine from 10 n
cents to ~ cents pound; further,
! that the company has expended more
than a million dollars in the effort to
produce binder twine from American
grown fax, which, If successful, would
have kept within the United States
twenty millions Of dollars now ex-
pended annually for imported sisal
and manila fibres.
The answer alleges the company
spends in developing and improving
machines annually 100000, cost
which none Of the old companies
would have sustained. BY producing
its own lumber, iron and steel, the
company says 1t can select materials
Of the particular quality best adapted
to the machines, thus increasing their
strength without increasing the cost.
Wages and Publicity.
The wages and conditions Of its en-
ployes, the answer says, have been i'm
proved by the Harvester company to
an extent impossible under trade con-
ditions existing prior to 1902; wages
have been increased fully ~ per cent;
profit-sharing systems have been es-
tablished; sanitary and safety applf
ances installed; liberal plan Of work
mems compensation put into effect,
with a benefit department providing
sick and death benefits for employees
and generous pension system.
It is further declared that the COM
pany has given wide publicity to its
business and in 1906 invited a full in
vestigation by the department Of
commerce and labor; that since 1907
the bureau of corporations has been
given free access to its books and
records and every facility for obtain
ing complete information as to its
business policies and methods; that
since 1907, the company has fled
with the bureau Of corporations its
annual reports covering all It's BUSH
ness operations and that 1t welcomes
the utmost publicity and public SUI
pervision, and is ready and Is de-
sirous Of remedying any defects or
Encouragement in it's business; that
relying upon the advice Of able legal
counsel as to the entire legality OF
it's organization, the company had
made enormous investments in de-
veloping Its foreign and domestic
trade and that it's stock has been pur-
chased by the general public and by
more than thirty-six hundred en-
ployes who have received stock under
the company's> profit-sharing plans.
Says Public Receives Benefit.
The answer AYERS that considering
the capital invested and the hazards
OF the business, the company's earn
~no NJ nh
smaller than the average profits OF
manufacturing companies; that the
public and employees are receiving the
benefits of the large economies and
increased efficiency resulting from the
organization; that there Is a diner
ence between the Harvester company
and illegal trusts and combinations;
that the company is managed by men
whose fathers originally developed
the harvester business, and that 1t
was organized without excessive cap
italization, and without any purpose
of cheating monopoly or securing
quick fortunes from stock sales or ex-
cessive earnings. 1t is pointed out
that during twenty years before the
com pany's formation, more than fifty
competitors have been eliminated
from the harvester business, and that
since then, there has been no such
elimination of competitors, but that
the company's business methods have
secured fair treatment to competitors
and has tended to foster competition
and not to destroy it. The answer in
sists that the United States govern
ment, having had for ten years full
knowledge of the company's organiza-
ton and methods and their beneficial
effect upon the trade and public. ought