Iditarod pioneer., 1915-01-09
GOVERNMENT ATTORNEY
 TELLS OF STEEL TRUST

The first formal step in the suit of the federal government to break up the United States Steel Corporation was taken on Oc- tober 20, before four jud ges sitting for the federal district of New Jersey.
 Jacob M Dickinson, former secretary of war, who has been in charge of the govcrn- ments side of the case since 1t was insti- tuted in October, 1911, took up the entire day in arguing for the separating into in dependent units of all the subsidiaries of the billion dollar corporation on the ground that their combination into one gigantic concern constituted a violation of the anti trust laws.
 Counsel for the government told the court that the corporation, in magnitude of capital ever brought together under one control. Mr. Dickinson began his argu- ment by going back more than a score of years into the history of American indus tries.
 He tcld of the sharp competition that then existed in the iron, steel, tin plate and kindred industries; of how pools were formed in the steel rail field and how agree ments were made between manufacturers of iron and steel to keep up prices; how captains of industry schemed to Dut each other out of business, and gradually led up to the formation Of the gigantic corpora tion now under fire.
 Mir Dickinson tcid how the five great industrial and financial interests came to- gether and formed the steel corporation in 1901. The five great interests he named were headed by the late J. P. Morgan, An drw Carnegie ". II. and J. H. Moore, John W. Gates and John D. Rockefeller. He went into intricate detail to show how the steel corporations capital of more than S1, 400, ,000000 was made up, and he charged that more than S500,000,000 of this was water
 Continuing his story, MT. Dickinson told how the steel corporation and its subsidl- aries kept up prices. and he said thta the men at the head of the big combination in every way possible restrained trade and crushed out competitors. The famous Gary dinners were touched upon at great length
 Mr Dickinson said that at these dinners about 80 per cent of the iron and steel manufacturers of the United States would come together and that general under standing would be reached to maintain prices Those attending these dinners in cluded he said, not only representatives of the steel corporation and its constituent concerns, but also representatives of stee industries outside the alleged trust.
 The purchase by the steel corporation of the Tennessee Coal < Iron Company dur ing the panic of 1907, in which President Roosevelt figured, was touched upon by Mir. Dickinson. He said thta the steel cor poraton did not purchase the Tennessee stock from the New York brokers, who were said to be in financial trouble, through any patriotic motives, to prevent the panic from psreading, but to get control of the com pany.
 MT. Dickinson made no reference to for mer President Roosevelt, but in the brief filed by the government it was set out that the representatives of the steel corporation who went to Washington, D. C., to consult with Mir Roosevelt on the propriety of pur- chasing the Tennessee stock from the New York brokers had deceived the President as to the amount of stock held by the New York firm.
 In the course of his argument Mir. Dick inson read letters and minutes of corpora ton meetings One letter that caused smile to go around and lessened the solepl- nity of the court room was one written by Andrew Carnegie at Skibo castle, Scotland. in 1899. It appeared that MT. Carnegie's company, with the Illinois Steel and other concerns, were in steel rail pool. Mir. Carnegie wrote letter to his company, which appeared in he minutes, stating that the Illinois company was 90,000 tons ahead of its proportion of the steel rail business and that it was bad policy to allow the Carnegie company's proportion of orders to fall below that of others.
 If you can fill next year at present prices you have at least S40,000,000 profit but it may be fifty. To want more than that seems wicked"
 At another time, when competition was brisk, before the days of the steel corpora ton, and ther was a scramble among man. ufacturers for business, MT. Carnegie wrote to his partners:
 'If 1 were czar I 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 botas upon the lakes, for our manufactured articles, and bring back scrap"