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Show W G QUOTED BY JUDGE DiGKin Government Attorney Brings Out Pertinent Fact Concerning Con-cerning Wire Pool. ORDERS ARE VIOLATED Head of the Corporation, However, Fails to Disci-pline Disci-pline the Offenders. NEW VOBIv. June 13. "If the United States Steel corporation paid 5.no.000,000 for the Tennessee Coal & Iron company and $14,000,000 moro to put it on its feet, not because it. j wanted the property, but in order to j save the firm of Moore & Schley and other hanking concerns holding Tennessee Ten-nessee Coal & Tron stock, from ruin in the panic of lf)07, wouldn't, it have been better for the corporation to loan Moore & Schley $10,000,000 or $11,000.000, or givo it to them outright?" out-right?" This, in substance, was the question Jacob M. Dickinson, attornov for tho frovnriimnnt In IVio sliconluf ;r. di,- against the corporation,4 asked its chairman, Judge Elbert H. Gary, today. to-day. Judge Gary had testified on direct examination that he did not. believe at the time the company was acquired that its stock was worth niQre than $.)0 a share and that the money spent in its acquisition and rehabilitation could have brought far greater profits if put into other plants. The government govern-ment maintains that, the corporation took advantage of the panickv conditions condi-tions of 1007 to acquire the company to suppress a competitor. Gary Answers No. ''I will say 'no.'" was Judge Gary's answer. "Wo in the financo committee had to give an account to the stockholders and even to relieve such a situation I doubt if the stockholders stock-holders would have excused such action. ac-tion. "We had to do business ho as to work out of that thing and get a return re-turn on tho investment. And 1 believe wq did the best and most prudent thing under the circumstances." Turning to tho question of the wire pools, whoso members were indicted and fined in 1011, .Indgo "Dickinson called tho attention of the witness to his testinionj' that in 1004 he had given orders to the corporation's subsidiaries sub-sidiaries to withdraw from all pools, and had not discovered tho participation participa-tion of tho American Steel & Wire company in the. wire pool until 100S, "through an outsider." ""What, steps did you take to inform yourself that your orders had been carried car-ried out?" Thought Matter Ended. "Nono. I had not been looking for burglars in my house and 1 had no reason rea-son to suppose that any woro there," replied tho witness. 'M thought, of course, our general solicitor's office had disposed of the whole matter, and I have no doubt they thought so, too." "What disciplinary steps did you take four j'ears later," when you learned your orders had been violated? Did you discharge anbody?" "No; 1 used emphatic language, but T was thoroughly satisfied that the thing would never occur again. Of course, if they had offended again the penalty would have been' severe. " Tho' federal attorney put into evidence evi-dence a statement attributed to Judge Gary, published after a meeting of stool manufacturers in 1911. In this tho witness was reported as saying that tho subsidarics of tho corporation proposod to moct the price reductions of the Republic Tron & Steel company and "that it is believed theBe prices will bo generally followed." The prices in question wero quotod. Thn witness said that ho had made tho statement, but that "some one else inserted tho prices." "No one," he added, "was under the least obligation to follow these prices." |