Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1915-09-15
Uncle Sam Pays Respects
to American Can Company

| business for fifteen years. They gained
control Of the ean-making patents.
"Within two years after this the Am.
erican Can company shut down and
dismantled most of the 100 and more
plants it had bought
"The United States Steel corporation
which controls the old Tin Plate Trust,
contracted to give preference to the
American Can company; and some OF
the can company organizers are stock
holders in the steel corporation.
~ want the court to declare this
company an illegal combination in re.
straint of trade. want it to be for
hidden to ship or sell cans until it has
been chopped up into its original com
panies and competition has been restor-
ed, and / want receiver appointed who
will work out these "details.
"The American Can company admits
all the details of organization that l
charge, but it denies that it is trust.
Il claim that for year before the
can company was organized, its future
president, Edwin Norton, went about
the country getting options on can-mak-
/ ing plants. He did this by telling the
can-makers that he represented Dan
Reid and other big moguls in the Tin
Plate Trust and thar if they didn It
get into the combination they would
have one Of their own cans tied to their
tails.
Anyhow, they got in.
And most Of them were prosperous
and making money, some of them on a
million dollar investment) without the
combination.
"McDonald of The Mersereau Can
company, of Brooklyn, testified that
when he refused an option to Norton,
Norton said to him;
L" If you don sign that option /
win put You out Of business. We will
wipe you off the slate. Where are you
going to get your tn.plate from Inside
Of sixty days after this company is org
anized it will become a constituent part
Of the United States Steel corpora
toni
"The elimination Of competition was
expressly urged by Norton as one of
the grounds for the formation of the
American Can company.
Immediately after the can company
was formed, prices were advanced by
the combination from 10 to 100 per
cent. But it is significant that there
was no corresponding advance in the
price Of tin plate, pigtin and lead and
other can materials.
1.-THE American company is four
times as large as its largest competitor;
and in 1918 its total sales exceeded by
$ll,l74,S74 the total sa,es of allits com.
petitors.
"The American Can company fixes
all can prices. The minutes of the com.
pany's meeting December 30, 1908,
shows that lon motion duly seconded
1t was ordered that the selling price of
packers cans for the next season be
left to Messrs. Reid and Assmann, to fix
according to their Judgment The same
thing was done in 1913, naming officials
to fix the prices.
Oliver w. johnson, Of the Wheeling
Can company, second largest competitor
OF the American Can company, saws
that his firm is largely governed by
the prices of the American Can com.
pany, names no prices until it has nam.
ed them and as a rule adheres strictly TO
these prices.
a New Jersey an-maker named
Magic referred to the formation of the
combine by saying;
Some of the people I met over
there IN New York City considered they
were performing an act in the name Of
Esau and Jacob by signing away their
night to 60 into business. To major.
NY OF the can'makers it is Il matter of
sell out or be frozen out
Peter /, lineweaver, small can
maker in Baltimore, whose plant was
acquired by the American Can ocm.
pany, said:
! ! met Mr.. Norton in the morning.
he said he was here for the last time
and if l wanted to give him an option
on my plant | would have to give il to
nm then | had held off / did NOT
sell until found that all the rest of
them had sold.
L1neweaver's only busintss now is
repairing tin roofs, spouts, stoves and
/ furnaces.
Somehow in this manner though NOT
IN TINS language, Uncle Sam will argue
next month for the dissolution of the
can trust. He won't appear in his Star
spanglcd suit with the bootstraps. eth.
er; but will speak through his own
business like attorneys. The case rank.
ing with the Harvester trust and the
STANDARD Oil in Importance is expected
to attract great interest