Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-03
GARY IN DENIAL
Of PRICE FIXING
Declares He Ordered Wire
Company to Withdraw
From Pool.
STEEL MAKERS DINNERS
EXPLAINED BY WITNESS
Co. Operative Plan q Failure. Head
of Corporation Says in Gov
ernment's Suit.

NEW YORK, June 3.-Judge Ebert II.
Gary. chairman of the United States Steel
Corporation, was questioned on the gen
eral subject of pools at the continuation
today of the hearing of the government s
dissolution suit. He said his attention
was first called to the American Steel and
Wire Company's participation in the So
called Jackson pool by a man who had
come to him in 1905 and demanded a job
because he knew the wire company was
In the pool
Il ordered an investigation and found
it was true testified the witness. land
Immediately ordered that the wire com
pany withdraw
Denies Price Fixing.
Judge Gary denied today that there
had been any other price fixing or per-
centage division of output among steel
manufacturers since 1904, although pre-
vious to that. he said. oral agreements
had been entered into with regard to
some products. The steel corporation
was organized in 1901.
Price fixing, as charged by the gov
eminent. was not the object of the So
called Gary dinners to steel manufacture
ers, the witness testified. He said that
when the first dinner was called. during
the panic of 1907, there was danger of
getting back to the old days of destruc-
tive competition and tricky, dishonest
warfare.
Purpose of Dinners.
1.-The purpose of these dinners he
continued was to bring manufacture
ers together to establish friendly
feeling in order to prevent such de-
moralization and establish stability OF
business. 1t was my object to pre-
vent-not by agreement, but by exhor-
nationwide and sudden fluctuations
OF prices. which would have been in
furious to steel manufacturers. There
was no agreement expressed or i'm
piled to fix prices. 1t was proposed
that each manufacturer let the other
know what he was doing, what prices
he was charging, what wages he paid
and what methods he employed. 1t
was our purpose to come together as
friends not as enemies"
Plan Fails to Work.
This cooperative PLAN subsequently
failed to work, the witness continued
and in 1909 the corporation was forced
to abandon the plan of giving informa-
tion to other manufacturers
Conditions changed he said
prices were being made below the ad
vertised prices in the trade journals
and 1T became evident that there was 8
disposition to publish at one price anc
sell at another without notifying Us
We ascertained that We were the only
ones that were selling at the prices
that were advertised. SO | said to oul
competitors. Gentlemen, / must with
draw from any meeting where you ex-
pect to get information from me- II
got to point where We were not get
ting our fair share of the business"
Denies Corey's Charge.
Judge Gary denied the existence of ar
international rail pool as testified to by
William E. Corey. former president oil
the corporation
"Of course, must admit that Mr.. Corey
might have made an agreement and kept
it secret from me, but / have no reason
to think he did said the witness.
In explanation of the fact that the
price of steel rails in this country has
remained at sos ton ever since the or
ganization of the steel corporation. Judge
Gary said that the price had been fixed
practically by agreement between the
railroads and the manufacturers because
$2S is considered fair price.
THE impression that there is big
profit In steel rails is wrong" said the
witness
Pools Defended by Hoar.
NEW YORK, June 3.-That the late
Senator Hoar OF Massachusetts, who
framed the Sherman antitrust law. wrote
an opinion one year after its enactment
which held that steel manufacturers who
entered pool agreements to fix prices
regulate output and divide profits coulo
not be convicted under the law, came tt
light yesterday at the hearing Of the