The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-07
GREAT COST OF STEEL CORPORATION
By HOLLAND


 brought by the government was some , what in excess of a million dollars. Tha
 amount must have been increased in ths Iyear that has passed so that it is within , reason to report that the total cost o the litigation as not far from a million i and quarter dollars Nevertheless, ths managers of the corporation will not now tregret so great an expenditure, since thu
 opinion handed down by the suprem,
 court on Monday last will make it DOS lsible for the corporation to begin some 1 very important expansion and improve. l ments, which have been held in abey.
 ance awaiting the determination of the supreme court upon the question whether : or not the corporation is operating 1T violation of the antitrust law.
 Occasionally the triumph of the cor. poration is spoken of as almost a barren victory, because the decision was reached by majority of one. So also it is said
 that had two of the members of the su- preme court bench felt justified in taking
 part in the discussion then the steel cor poration would have been defeated by vote of five to four. An assumption of this Kind, however, is not warranted. The.two members of the supreme court bencff who refrained from acting were constrained to do co because they had in the past | taken part in some of the litigation brought against the corporation One ot these as formerly attorney general, the Il other had acted professionally in a pri- vate capacity. But these two refrained from acting solely for reasons of official
 propriety. Nobody knows Tow they would have voted when the question was up for action in the consulting room of the su- preme court had they not been debarred from action by reason Of professional re- l lations which they maintained before | their appointment to the supreme court bench They might one of them prob ably, both possibly, had they been en- tirely free to act, have united with the four other members of the supreme court, who united in writing the majority opin- | ion
 | Now that the supreme court has given a clear title to the steel corporation and has been spoken with cummendation of some of its activities. having referred also l impressively to the importance of the
 public interests in this matter, the cor
 poration will be able, possibly very soon, probably before year or two has passed | to carry out plans which it had for tho l expansion and improvement of certain of it's plants. and for the greater harmon izing of all of them.
 l Probably the first of these new under ] takings will be made in the Birmingham Ala, district The managers of the steel corporation have often spoken of the op- 1 portunities that awaited development in 1 that district. A year or two ago George w. Perkins, while visiting the Birming- | ham district, spoke with enthusiasm of ] It's development, and clearly intimated that if there were full advantage taken I of these opportunities the district might
 match in few years the Pittsburg dis-
 trict. In the Birmingham district there IS l opportunity for the development of a much larger export trade in certain for | eign fields than is practicable in the more northern steel districts. The opening of I the Panama canal to navigation, the | heavy demand which Is to come from Central and South America for steel and also the remarkable industrial develop ment of the Gulf states offer wonderful l opportunities for an increase of steel manufacture and for convenient and eco-
 nomical nearby marketing of the products
 of the steel and iron industry in the Bir- minghani district.
 1 The impression prevails that the lower court, which decided in favor of the cor poration and now the supreme court, re- garded as highly important, perhaps vital, to the contention of the steel corporation that it was not seeking monopoly, and was not destroying competition. the testi- 1 mony of Charles M. Schwab before the master, who was appointed to take testi- mony. For if there were any real and dangerous restraint of trade stimulated by the policy of the steel corporation # would be surely felt by the Bethlehem Steel Company, of which MT Schwab is president. His testimony was emphatic and explicit. He asserted that while of course there was reasonable competition, all of the leaders of the steel indsutry seeking all the business they could get, nevertheless there had been no cut-throat competition. but instead, wholly fair and honorable methods of obtaining business.
 MT. Schwab went so far as to intimate that there is still business in plenty for all, and that the steel industry of the United States would not be impaired, but in fact inspired by the example set by the managers of the United tSates Steel Corperation.
 It may be that one effect of this decis- ion of the supreme court will be to stimu- late Congress to overhaul the Sherman antitrust law. The opportunities are abundant for making careful investiga- ton of some of the effects of this law upon American industrial life Further more. the experience of the nation while the European war was in progress semes to have demonstrated that if there be ade- cuate. wise and reasonable governmental regulation and supervision the dangers which the Sherman antitrust law was. written to overcome would be eliminated On the other hand our war days experi- ence has proved utility cf combination,
 
 knows that the government itself. while the war was in progress. substantially 1 acted as though the sherman antitrust l law was not on the statute book. One Of the reasons why the late Senators George l F. Hoar and George H. Edmunds wrote l the Sherman anti-trust law was the fear l that industrial life would take on such 1 colossal proportions as to endanger the | political and even the economic strength | of people. Senator Hoar in his later l years. clearly intimated that 'the pub | lic' was fearful lest there be organized l what is now called "bis business" Now the country has learned that in itself "big l business may be healthful and the su- preme court in it's latest decision, has ex- plicitly declared that by itself big busi- l ness does not necessarily mean danger.
 There seems to be growing sentiment ! with some members of Congress and a l considerable sentiment with the people l that the sherman anti-trust law has had | its day of advantage and that it would | be well for the country if it be rewritten | and modified so that it may glance in | with present day industrial con- | ditions That can be done in the view | of those who have given much thought to | the subject, if there also be provided ade | quate and wise governmental regulation | and supervision. Some of the industrial leaders have gone so far as to say that ] casioned by the Sherman antitrust law would be ended if the larger industries f were permitted to take out federal char f whose market is not wholly within their 10 Ia a u1A Erst Ix.xrf <~~ xr<