The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-11

Brooklyn and others.
tives call upon him from time to time
to solicit business.
He said from the indications that he
would say that there is an earnest de-
sire on the part of the various companies
for the business of his firm. Mr.. Con-
verse said that when business was dull
there was the keenest kind of competition,
but when the mills had plenty of orders
that the keenness of competition dimin-
1shed somewhat,
Competition Keen, Says Hunt
Clinton A. Hunt of Memphis, an ex-
sales manager with offices in Cincinnati,
and lately president and general manager
of the Memphis Steel Construction COM
pany, was the next witness. He told
what his company made for the market,
principally charcoal furnaces, boiler plates
and other iron and steel commodities.
He testified that there was keen COM
petition from various steel makers for
the business of his firm. He testified
that when sales manager for North &
Son, steel makers, he did not know of
any combination to fix prices. He said
if there was pool to maintain prices in
1904 that the pool did not effectively re-
strain competitive prices for his district.
He said that he found variations in
the prices of steel and iron commodities
from time to time during the years that
he was sales manager at Cincinnati and
later. He gave the name of several steel
companies that were competitors during
the time he was a sales manager for
Worth & Son.
James d. Moore, president of the Moore
Handley Hardware Co. since 1909, and
before that president of the Moore &
Handley Hardware company since 1888,
testified for the defense in the afternoon.
He testified to the purchases by his COM
pany of wire nails, barbed wire, poultry
fencing, netting and screen cloth. HO
testified that his company bought both
plain and corrugated sheets as well as
black and galvanized. He said that his
company bought pipe and bars and shaft
ing. He said roughly speaking that his
company bought about 45 per cent of it's
wire products from the American Steel
and Wire company.
Bought on Competition Basis
Mr. Moore said that everything was
bought on a competitive basis, which va
ried from time to time in quoted prices
Mr.. Moore gave the names of the COM
panies from which his company made
purchases named some of the Steel cor
poration companies as well as the COM
panies that are of the so-called independ-
ent group. He said that there rad been
a decided increase in competition locally
towards the Steel corporation. both in
size and Importance. He said that he
felt sure that outside of the Steel cor
poration his firm could not supply itself
with all the material required.
In answer to the following question
about restraining trade, MIR. Moore. with
unusual deliberateness gave the follow
ing answer:
@. Did you feel in 1907, or have you
felt since, or do you feel now, that the
purchase of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and
Railroad company by the United State.
Steel corporation was an injury to the
consumers of steel products in the south
The Witness: / have not felt so; [ have
felt that it has been benefit rather than
a disadvantage.
BY Mr.. Reed
@. In what way has 1t been a ben
eft?
A. So far as I have been able
to observe, they have not restrained
any competition and they have devel-
oped this district very much and made
conditions in that particular line very
much better than they were before. |
have observed that the independents
as they are sometimes termed, have
increased in their percentage of output
very decidedly, while the Steel cor
poration has increased its percentage
perhaps it has doubled or more thar
doubled what it was.
@. Increased it's percentage?
The witness: Increased their tonnage
that is what / meant, increased theii
tonnage and decreased their percent.
age. That is the point I was getting
at. While they have increased theii
tonnage, their percentage has de-
creased. which shows that the inde-
pendents have grown more rapidly
| than they have.
Simpson Last Witness
| Rush Simpson, purchasing agent fol
| the Wimberly e. Thomas Hardware Co.
followed Mr.. Moore. His testimony was
practically the same as that of Mr.
Moore. He gave Information about the
articles his firm purchased and what
methods were used in securing com
petitive bids. He did not know of any
combination to fix price between
competitors and gave it as his opinion
| that competition was keen at all times
Mr.. Simpson gave the names of the