New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-10-21
Government Prosecutor
Reads Them in Opening
Dissolution Trial.
GARY DINNERS
CITED IN COURT
Brief OF Corporation Denies
Sitting of Competition and
Creation of Monopoly.

Nile suit OF the government, Whlch is
seeking to break up the United States
Steel Corporation by separating into
independent units all Of its subsidi-
aries, on the ground that their combi-
nation constituted violation of the
antitrust laws. was begun here to-day
before four judges, sitting as the
United States Court for the District
OF New Jersey. Jacob NJ. Dickinson,
ex-Secretary of War, who has been in
charge of the governments side of the
case since 1t was instituted, in Octo-
Der, 1911, took up the entire day in
presenting the prosecution, and will
continue tomorrow. The entire week
will be taken up by the final argu-
ments of counsel for each side
counsel for the government told the
court that the billion dollar corpora
ton, in magnitude and strength, was
the greatest combination of capital
ever brought together under one con-
troll. He began his argument by going
back more than a score of years into
the history of American industries. He
told Of the sharp competition that then
existed in the iron, steel, tinplate and
kindred industries; of how pools were
formed in the steel rail field, and how
agreements were made among manu-
facturers of iron and steel to keep up
prices; how these pools dried up and
agreements we're broken; how captains
Of industry schemed TO put one an
other out of business; how one steel
concern would absorb another, and he
gradually led up to the formation of
the corporation now under fire
haalr Lac
utes of corporation meetings. One let
ter was written by Andrew Carnegie at
Skibo Castle, Scotland, in 1899. 1t ap-
peared that Mr. Carnegie's company,
with the Illinois Steel and other con-
Germs, was in a steel rail pool. Mr..
Carnegie wrote a letter to his COM
pany, which appeared on the minutes,
stating that the Illinois company was
10000 tons ahead of its proportion of
the steel rail business and that it was
bad policy to allow the Carnegie com
pany's proportion of orders to fall be-
low that of others.
IF you can fill next year at present
prices you have at least $4,000, 900
proft-but It may be S50,000,000. To
want more than that seems wicked"
At another time, before the days of
the corporation and when competition
was brisk, Mr.. Carnegie wrote TO his
partners:
"If were Car would make no divi-
dends upon common stock, save all sur
plus and spend it for a hoop and cotton
tie mill, for wire and nail mills, for
tube mills, for lines of boats upon the
lakes for our manufactured articles
and bring back scrap"
Richard V. Lindabury, of Newark,
n. j., will open the argument for the
Steel Corporation tomorrow after Mr..
Dickinson ends. There is a long list Of
lawyers to be heard.
The brief filed by the United States
Steel Corporation reviewing the law
which the government applies to the
case, and also reviewing the evidence,
declares that what competition existed
among the companies acquired by the
corporation was greatly limited. 1t
declares that the corporations proper
ton of the country's total production
of finished products in 1901, when the
corporation was formed, was only 5O.1
per cent; that it has since been re
duced to 45.7 per cent of the country's
production for all the markets Of the
world and to 400 per cent of the total
production for the domestic market.
The corporations supply of ore in
the Lake Superior district constituted
only 43 per cent Of the total amount Of
ore in the ranges of that district known
in 1901, the brief states; that the cor
poration's present supply there constl-
tutes only 36 per cent, and that of the
total ores available for American iron
and steel manufacturers, the ores OF
the Lake Superior district constitute a
small fraction.
In denying that the Steel Corpora
tion suppressed competition, the brief
states that the organization of the COM
pany was but natural and normal de-
velopment from existing trade and
manufacturing conditions.
The brief calls attention to the cor
poration's successful efforts in build
ing up large foreign trade for Amer
lean iron and steel products and states
that the records do not show single
instance Of freight rebates having been
asked or given by the Steel Corpora
ton or its subsidiaries since its or
ganization.
With respect to its employees, the
brief says the corporation has reduced
wages only once during the whole
period of its existence; that this was
occasioned by a severe business de-
preston in 1904, and that since its
formation the wages Of the corpora
tion's employees have been increased on
the average of 2S.5 per cent.
The price of its products, the brief
continues, is shown to have decreased
on the average about SO ton since
it was formed. II is also shown that
the price of steel products as COM
pared with other commodities has di-
minished 1876 per cent since the cor
poration was formed and since 1908
has been less in the United States
than in either England or Germany.
The brief denies the allegations that
the Steel Corporation took advantage
Of the 1907 panic to acquire control OF
the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company.
II declares that the Tennessee was not
substantial competitor of the Steel
Corporation because it had never been
success; that the Steel Corporation
had declined repeated offers of the
Tennessee property, and reiterates
previous statements of the corporation
that the stock was taken over only
when it became apparent that nothing
else would save Moore & Schley, the
New York firm, from failure and pre-
vent the spread Of panic.
Evidence shows, the brief sums up,
"that no artificial barriers exist in the
steel trade; that for nearly ten years
competitive conditions have been ideal,
and that under these conditions new
competitors have grown up and eX-
banded, products have improved, prices
have declined and trade has hourished
as never before"
EXPORTS OF APPLES AND PEARS.
The following table gives the exports OF
apples pears and other fruit from United
states and Canadian ports for the week ended
Octoher II 1871 prepared for The Tribune by