The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-06-19
WALKERC0NTR0LS HARTFORD ICE

! Hartford, June 19.-The assertion | of Harry w. Walker of Bridgeport 1 that he sold out the Merchants 1 Tee Company of Hartford to protect l himself found verifcation in st.s-..S- | ment by Barney l.. Myers of No. 343 | Windsor ave, formerly a partner 1 with MT. Walker in the company. Not | only was protection sought and ob- | tained by MT. Walker for himself at 1 that time, but he now has the ice | businesses in Hartford so tied up | that nothing can be done without his l consent. His latest move in the mat | ter of protection" was the acquire
 ment of the Greenwoods Company in l New Hartford, which controls the | New Hartford pond from which the
 Trout Brook Ice Company has been | harves ting ice for several years, most | of which has been sent to Hartford
 and a considerable part shipped to | other cities and towns in and out of 1 the state.
 The agreement between the Trout | Brook Ice Company, the Spring | Brook Ice Company and the Berk-
 shire Ice Company, as related by l Myers. seems to provide the informa- 1 ton for action by United States Dis | trict Attorney John F. Crosby, who | lSI IL De kIONA lndL ne was Wiling l to prosecute If it could be shown that 1 an agreement was made by ice deal | CTS for the purpose of fixing the price | of ice. MT. Myers says there is no ! question but the price of ice has been | fixed for Hartford and other cities, | and the fixing was done by Harry W. 1 Walker. In addition to this, there is | an agreement, according to Myers, whereby one of the leading Hartford | companies provides the other with a | certain quantity of ice, even though | it's own supply may be low. before | the Berkshire Company will send ice i to the city.
 The Merchants Ice Company, ac- cording to MT. Myers, was organ | ized in 1906, though it did not be- come fairly operative until the fol- | lowing year. It did a good business l disposing of about 55,000 or 65 900 ! tons of ice a year. A. c. Wagner be- ] ing associated with MT. Myers in the ! business. Most of the ice was at that time purchased from The Berkshire Ice Company, but it was before the time Mir. Walker had obtained con- trol, MT. Howell, a banker of Boon- ton, N. J. being president, and the interests of the Merchants Ice Com pany were cared for in every way. The control of the Berkshire com pany was afterwards bought by MT. Walker.
 Even after Walker had sold his in- terests in the Merchants Ice Company to its two greatest competitors, for a time MT. Myers was continued as manager of the Merchants Company. He explains he had several good GUS toners in the ''hill'' section of the
 city, and continued to send his
 rao +hara Ia 11x- NTr Arnold not to do this, as the Trout
 Brook Company would care for the
 trade in this section and it would
 lessen the operating expenses not to
 do so, but Myers continued to supply
 his trade until he received instruc-
 tions from Bridgeport to desist. The
 instructions came from c. T. Brown,
 then as now Walkers chief asset in
 the Bridgeport office and was in the
 form Of a diagram showing the sec
 lions of the city in which the teams
 of the Merchants Company could
 and could not operate. According to
 Myers the order was designed for the
 purpose of throtrlins the Merchants
 Company. The terms of the agree
 ment between the Berkshire Company
 and the two Hartford companies were
 told to Myers, he asserts, by Walker
 himself
 Myers declared that the statement
 made in New Haven by Walker that
 the reason he acquired the Mer- chants Company was because the company owed him money was en-
 tirely without foundation. Myers says the company owed the Berkshire
 Company about $2,10O or s2,20O, and
 the Merchants Company had S4,500 in the bank. From this was paid S1,- 050 for the horse Walker insisted on
 buying, which left approximately S3,-
 500 in the bank. When the settle ment was made of the affairs of the company, Myers says he had to col lect $1,75O as his share, just half of what he should have received for his holdings. Samuel Collins got S5,250 for his holdings. The company was never in bad shape financially, Myers declares.
 Walker declared before the New | Haven ice Investigating committee | that he had never heard of the Hy- gieia Ice Company of Hartford when l asked if he knew anything of its fate Myers declares this statement abso- Iutely untrue, for Walker commits stoned him to purchase the plant of | the Hygieia Ice Company for from | S30,000 to s35,000, and instructed | him to go no higher than the last | named figure. Arnold paid more | than that price for it, and got the | property. It was operated by the l Trout Brook Company but one year, | where there was small crop of ice, 1 and the building is now used as a ] garage. It was located near the Blake l foundry on Windsor street, and be- 1 fore giving orders to buy it, Walker | y,1o