Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1915-09-15
By George Martin.
ted Press ataff correspondent. J

Omitted Press staff couespondentt
Washington, Sept. l5-There is moth
ing more ordinary than a tin can
Nothing much cheaper Nothing less
apt to attract attention or cause con'
ment.
Yet Uncle Sam has deemed the tin
can worthy his most serious conadera-
ton. Worth much Of the time and grave
thought of his attorney general, MI
Gregory, highly paid and very I'M
pOrtant member of his cabinet.
Whyi
Because a corporation named the Am
erican Can company lifted the TN
can, as one might say, off the pantry
shelf and glorified it to the extent OF a
hundred million dollars
If you are interested, 60 down TO
Baltimore October 5. In the United
States district court room there you
will find our own Uncle Sam, coat off
and sleeves rolled up, doing his level
best to dump the water out Of tins hun
dred million dollar tin can and cut the
can up into lot of little cans.
There will be gentlemen there IN nat.
ty business suits on the other Sde OF
the room hooting at Hncle Sam. They
will say, in effect:
" Why, Uncle Sam, what are you try
ing to dos Do you think you have an
enormous tin can theref And that 1t g
full of water7 What bosh! "
But Uncle Sam viii grayely proceed;
and this is about what he'll try to
show:
(Uncle Sam speaking)
"There was man by the name OF
Dan Reid in Richmond Indiana; Daniel
G. Reid, he is now, OF New York, form
er commodore of The New York Yacht
club and quite a considerable citizen
altogether.
"There was another man in this same
town by the name of W. B. Leeds He
and Reid got together with some Chi
cago fellows and organized the Tin
Plate Trust, which is to say that they
bought up or gained control Of every
tin-plate factory in the country.
''To weld all these factories together
into one organization took a heap of
financial juggling; and even after the
thing was organized Dan Reid spent
many a sleepless night figuring out
ways and means of keeping the thing
together. His stock went a-begging.
Finally, however, the thing began
to shape around and Reid woke up one
morning to find himself 50 rich he
didn know where to begin cutting the
coupons.
81 claim that the American Can com
pany, against which have brought an
antitrust suit, is child of the Tin
Plate Trust, and that it has ever since
1901 been absolute monarch of the tin
can business from start to finish; and
that the can-buyer and the eanuser is
financially getting the worst Of this
monopoly.
"When the Aperican Can company
was organized in New Jersey in 1901
it gobbled up, according to prearrang.
ed plan, more than hundred can-mak-
ing plants and businesses-or every can
making plant Of consequence in the
United States.
" As the result Of this gobbling up
claim that the American Can company
got such strangle hold on the can
business in the United States that when
Homer Bliss, (who was one of the fac
tory men who sold out to the trust). .
told an official Of the American Can
company that he could edo better bust
ness If the customers were given better
prices" he received this reply:
81 guess we got the bulge on 'em,
Bliss; and don believe it makes much
difference what prices we ask. They
have got TO buy Of lie. 80
II claim that the American Sheet &
Tin Plate company is q New Jersey
corporation under contract to furnish
the American Can company with tin.
plate at preferential prices.
' | also claim that until Just short
time before the filing of this suit the
Baxams Machine company of New York
was under contract to furnish the Amer
lean Can company with its special can
making machinery exclusively.
The Sanitary Can company and the
Missouri Can company / say are subsid.
iaries of the American Can company.
" These three companies control the
trade IN tin cans Of every description (;
vegetable, fruit oyster, lard, baking
powder toilet articles and many other
kinds Of cans.
No manufacturer up to 1901 con.
trolled large part of this rapidly in,
ereaang interstate trade in cans.
" But this combination took these
plants, filled them with water and start.
ed IN deliberately to soak the public.
Fhey made the former oYners of the