The Washington times., 1912-03-27
MARTIN OPENS WAR
ON SHELTER TRUST
WITH RESOLUTION
c olorado o Congressman
Wants House to Probe
Guggenheims.
BY THEODORE TILLER.

ny 1nhODON6 llLLEk.
The machinery for an investigation of
the Smelter trust-alleged to dominate
the smelling industry through the guild
ing genius Of the Guggcnhcims-was
set In motion I'm the House today
by the Introduction of a resolution b.
Congressman John A. Martin, a Colorado
Democrat, who asks that the Commit
tee on Mines and Mining proceed with
an immediate probe of the combine
In presenting his resolution, Congress-
man Martin issued a statement in
which he bitterly assails the financial
ana political activities of the Guggen-
helms. The Smelter trust, he says, has
put the Guggenhelms in the short space
Of twenty-five years in the extremely
Limited list Of the worlds richest fam
that the Guggenhelm interests dominate
the State of Colorado politically and
that the smelter combine has left
graveyard" of rival smelters through
out Colorado.
Congressman Martin araCteriZes as
astounding" the recent refusal OF the
Attorney General to acquaint the House
with any Information in the Depart
ment of Justice regarding the existence
OF the trust. He quotes the Attorney
Generals statement that an investiga-
ton year ago revealed mo evidence
that the American Smelling and Re-
fning Company constitutes in itself a
trust or any part of trust"
Denies Statement.
''Unhappily, this is not So" says
Mr.. Martin. "It is an absolutely safe
assertion that there is a smelling trust
and that the Department of Justice Is
protecting it and shirking it's duty and
dare not do its duty by prosecuting
this powerful ally of the Taft Admins
tration."
In demanding an investigation the
Martin resolution prefers the following
bill OF charges against the Smelter
trust:
That 1t is charged and generally be-
lleved to control the production of gold
silver, copper, lead and zinc ores, the
purchase. smelling, and refining of the
same, and the marketing and sale Of
the smelted and refined products; that
1t is believed to deprive the producer
or miner of just profit by extortionate
handle the product of certain indepen-
dent properties; that it prospects for
land operates mining properties through
subsidiaries In a manner to injure inde-
pendent operations and that II has mo-
nopolistlc control over the smelling and
rGefning, industries of the United
Under the Martin resolution the Com
mittee on Mines and Mining is directed
TO inquire into every phase of the
operations Of the SmeIter trust and to
report It's nllQlnbS to the House,
Aware that there is now considerable
sentiment in the House against the ap-
pointment of additional Special in
vestigating committees. Chairman Mar
tin consulted some of the leaders on
the Democratic side and determined
that hte regular Committee on Mines
and Mining is in position to conduct
sweeping probe Of the alleged Gug
genheim trust This committee only
needs to be clothed with authority to
summon witnesses and compel the pro-
duction Of books and papers, and this
probably will be accorded it when the
House Rules Committee begins con-
sderation of the Martin resolution.
Makes Charges.
Sensational charges against the Gug-
genheims are made by Congressman
Martin in support OF his resolution for
a probe Of the Smelter trust.
Congress is showing signs of languor
In the trust-busting business" said Mr..
Martin today, but | hope to show that
Ia all the antitrust furore one of the
biggest things in that line has pursued
the even tenor of It's way.
AT the same time l hope to show
that this particular trust is the most
corrupting and reaCtiOnary influence in
pages in the history of Colorado, and
there are no blaCker in the history of
American Commonwealths, were writ
ten by the Guggenheim check books
cratic at the present time largely as a
reaction from the appalling condition"
Mr. Martin reviews the history of the
Guggenheim Senatorial contest, and
says that when Senator Guggenheim
became candidate mot one hundred
people in Colorado knew him by sight,
he had never addressed the people in
Colorado orally or in writing upon poll
tlcs or any other subject, the only thing
he had ever written was checks to
nnance the public utility corporation
machine in Denver"
Congressman Martin says that the in
Nestigation which the Attorney General
says he conducted of the Smelter trust
year ago n,oStiso was nice quiet, star, tar
Ike the Guggenheims to get their trust
investigated while nobody was looking.
That's the way they garnered the
smelling industry" says Martin.
about the Guggenheim method of doing
things. That was not the way they
gathered in the smelling industry on
the American continent and got a stran-
resolution says. That was not the
way they annexed a Sena torship. No
tom-toms for that aggregation. While
the House OF Representatives was fill
Ing the national ear with the dread din
OF Steel and Sugar trust carnage and
the magazines were bally-hoong about
Alaska and the Cunningham claims,
Mr. Wickersham was holding a nice
quiet, little star chamber Smelter trust
inquirendo. and found, to use his own
language:
."'No evidence that the American
Smelling and Refining Company consti-
tutes In itself trust, or any part of a
trust
This Is equivalent to saying that
there Is no trust in the smelling bust
ness. If this Is true, 1t Is asphenomenon
more worthy of investigation than a
dozen trusts. Such an inquiry should
disclose the secret of this happy con-
dition of competition in the smelling
business, and its application to the ad-
mittedly trustized industries Of the
world should solve the great trust ques-
tlon and bring on the industrial millcn-
MUM.