The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-03-03
TRUST HAS POWER
Harvester Company Holds
MOnopoIistic Position.
Report Made i'm Response to
Order of Senate.

{ seeking
dissolve under the Sherman law, lies
In Its monopolistic position, including
its connections with J. P. Morgan and
company and John d. Rockefeller. and
certain Objectionable competitive meth
: DDS, according to Luther Conant, Jr.,
| commissioner of corporations, in his
/ report on the operations of the giant
| corporation, submitted to President
Taft today.
| THE chief features of the Interna-
ttona1 Harvester company's opera
tions," says Mr.. Conant, ARE the sub
stantial maintenance of it's monopolis-
| tic position in the harvesting-machine
business. originally acquired through
/ combination, and its extensions on
| large scale into new lines of the farm
machinery industry. The company has
been able to do this in part through
the acquisition of some of it's chief
rivals in the harvesting machine bust
ness; in part by using it's monopolistfc
advantage in these harvesting-machine
lines to force the sale of it's new lines;
in part by certain Objectionable COM
petitive methods; and especially
! through its exceptional command of
capital. itself the result of combina-
ton
Senate Ordered Investigation.
The harvester Investigation was made
in response to a senate resolution
passed several years ago. Recently a
I
of the company that the report be
withheld pending the outcome of the
antitrust suit. but President Taft de-
cided to make it public.
The combination, the report declares,
was arranged in 1902 by the former
owners of five leading competing con-
GERMS and was not, "as frequently as
serted,'' mere sale of their properties
to the new interests.
Between 1903 and 1904, the COM
NV ,y,aic
sioner, to have acquired, secretly, con-
troll of D. NJ Osborne & Co, its chief
competitor; the Minnie Harvester COM
pany, the Aultman-MilIer company and
the Keystone company. These are re-
ferred to as bogus Independents" The
secret control of the Osborne company,
the report says, was maintained for
nearly two years, while it was being
advertised as an independent concern.
These representations, it is alleged,
were supported by it's managers in
sworn statements that it was an in
dependent company. Two Of the chief
stockholders of the Osborne company,
Mr.. Conant adds. agreed to refrain
from engaging independently in the
same lines of business for ten years.
The report says that the harvester
company's claim that the ownership
was concealed in some cases merely to
facilitate the liquidation of the old
concern is not regarded by the bureau
of corporations as justification of the
practice.
Manufactures Extended.
+ These acquisitions, the report con-
tinues, were followed by the company
extending it's manufacture from such
harvesting machinery as grain binders
and mowers to the so-called new lines
of farming tools such as ti1lage inn |
plements, manure spreaders, farm wag- |
Ons, gasoline engines, tractors and |
cream separators- Compulsion of dea-
lers to take the company's "new'' lines /
by reason of it's monopolistic control of |
harvesting machines, says the commits |
sioner, has been attempted with more |
or less success by the company's rep |
resentatiVes.
Special discriminatory prices and |
terms" Mr. Conant continues, have |
been reported in a number of instances
but the general policy of the company
is to maintain high prices in the
monopolized lines; in the principal new
lines, however, where considerable
competition 5 encountered, unusually
low prices and long terms have been
generally employed.
Another rather general complaint is
that statesmen of the International
Harvester company represent that pur-
chasers of competing lines of harvest
ing machines will be able to secure re-
pair parts, a matter of much practical
Officers of the Interna-
this was at one time common. charac-
teristfc of competition in the harvesting
machine industry, but that the COM
pany Is opposed to the practice and has
used active efforts to eliminate it. The
bureau, however, received rather num-
erous complaints of this character.
1.-The company at one time openly at
tempted through a clause in its COM
mission contracts to control the price
paid for its machines by the farmer
to the retail dealer. Since the elimina-
ton of this clause, Suggested retail
by some of it's branch Off
GERS, apparently for the purpose of in
maintaining the retail prices,
the company contends that
these lists are intended for the use of
it's employees in furnishing informa-
ton to purchasers and processes to dis
their issuance to dealers. 1t is
evident, however, that it could COM
pletely stop this practice if it really
wished to-
Concentration of Stock.
Although new competition of great
has begun to appear, the
points out that the COM
bination in 1911 still had about sc per
cent of the production of binders, IS
Der cent of the production of mowers
and u per cent of the production of
rakes In manure spreaders, he adds,
it appears to have over one-haIf of the
business; in disk harrows approximate =,
ly 40 per cent, and to be increasing it's
proportion in several other lines, such
as wagons and gasoline engines.
The stock of The company, says Com
missioner Conant, has been closely held
by the former interests, the McCor-
mick and Deering families having
held large majority of the
total. while considerable amounts also
have been retained by other stockhold-
ers.
This fact" he continues, assumes
Importance il view of the
pending dissolution suit of the gov
eminent against the compauy''