Show BIG POWDER TRUST j Backed By Millions of Dollars and J Controlled ll > Three Firms I NEW YORK June 6The Herald I this morning says j What looks like a powder trust is I now in operation backed by many mIllIons 1 mil-lions of dollars and virtual1 controlled con-trolled by three big manufacturing concerns which will create the price of that commodity The three companies I com-panies are the Laflin and Rand Powder Pow-der company the Hazard Powder company com-pany and the Dupont De Nemours company all of this city As a result of the combination the price of rifle powder or what is called sporting powder has advanced from I 325 for a keg weighing twentyfive pounds to 4 while blasting powder I has been advanced from U to 225 I per keg The new order went into ef I I feet on June I Although the officials 1 of the companies say there was no I agreement between them the fact that c prices are advanced on the same day I to the same figures might help to indicate in-dicate otherwise I The Phoenix Powder company in the Havemeyer building is one of the first i of the twenty smaller companies to surrender to the big concerns The Phoenix was named as next to I the three largest companies that have I advanced prices Its stock is almost I entirely owned by the Laflin and Rand company and its present officers are I to be replaced by others named by that company The treasurer George S Van Wyc I kle said the transfer had takan place at the end of May and gave as a reason rea-son that the company could not standout stand-out against the combination of the three largest companies We have had all we could do to make ends meet since the company was organized in 1888 he said and this latest move of the trust has been too much for us The other officials were reticent about the matter of a trust having a been formed but talked freely of the advance in the price of powder They professed to have been losing money for the last three or four years owing < to a falling off in prices I The treasurer of the Hazard company com-pany said This company which is one of the largest has been doing a business of many millions a year but has been running at a loss for sometime some-time and decided to raise prices J H Haskell president of the Laf lin and Rand company said in effect ef-fect the same thing and that now the company proposed to manufacture powder at a profit We have several million dollars invested in-vested he said and we were forced to raise the price Do not these three companies practically prac-tically control the output Yes practically that is about so he replied And will smaller manufacturers bs able to compete with you in the schedule < 5 sched-ule of prices I dont think they will very ldng he replied significantly j |