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Show I IS JSSIIS ljflf.Oil!l ; j Under Protest, He ?! rS With Disapproval r of Prices. f ;etfS Figures Showing U Profits" of Steel d Companies. I -IXOTON, May 23. Orders for i ""' of open hearlh rails have i , ' i,y the railroad rulmimsi r,v 1 ? sis stool companies, wlm-li, '4 '.',( for a request for bids, nuo!- j .'"l'..:v a price based on the asroc- - the steel interests and I '. dissolved industrial board j 'vrtnu'iit of commerce. . 'General Mines, whose refusal ''.j l,v the agreement was an I -M factor in the dissolution of Cial board, in announcing the ":.;'Hit said they were f laced ': ""rost-' and with the eiu- '. 'jsinpioval of the prices and the , ;t"in which they were eslab- i :'. bi,i5 based on the prices r Wtwn representatives ot i :J' erosis and th n-ocnt.y dis-' dis-' i ' .trial board, have . been si,.b-t si,.b-t ;S?ix steel companies in response i pi'roaJ administrations request ii'oFn hearth rails. " Coneral nines announced to-'"i'i'v to-'"i'i'v he had placed orders with rtaiiies for 200,000 tons of rails, i"v iaul done so "under protest ' -: h 'emphatic disapproval of the .".,..! tilt manner in which tliey .:a r-Iisned." e ..'o-ni price of 47 per ton for :'i'th rails, which Director General 'sid tras "in strict, accordance I v-i prices approved hy the inuas-Vl" inuas-Vl" was submitted to the rail-'X-inMration bv the Carnegie rirar.y, the Illinois Steel company i T'in'cssce Coal and Iron com-' com-' ei qlbEidiaries of the United States "Srporation. and by the Colorado Irnn company, the Bethlehem "tomparry . and the Lackawanna 1 :o.T.pjr.y. J Solicited. j r his failures to induce represen- -,o,'the steel interests to reduce the h i , '','''1,1" t,ho!r '"foment with T 'H,:,',nl' "-tw ('.coral 7 i"" "1", ':11 ,lul 1,1 "' public ln-., ln-., t . , ." " l'n,"ui'st oonipetitlvo bids on in,- M.-rl i i-.iHlrcin.'nts of the rail-road rail-road adniinlstiati,,,,, whirr, Is the eo -IMS l.u'C.sl l-nycr of staol. Tile I, Ids announced tonlKlu wore submitted In response re-sponse to the director peneral's ronuc.st in tils recent opinion lioldln,. t,0 ,.,,, acreenieut ,,.;, , ,,, musll.(.Ll , j to be nutborl.ed by a,v, Attorney ,;. era 1 aimer declared that under the. anti-u.M anti-u.M laws ,,nc,.-vln;; aKiwments e,c h" . l and i that such n,w,i,mta n.inht o bioiiKht about throuKh an Informal moelini; ot the minds as well ns through formal contracts." Mr Palmer a. so held it , i,e ., established letral principle that the purchase of Koveni-ment Koveni-ment supplies shall he governed by the competitive svslrai. , Idrector n.uei-al Mines, In his statement state-ment toniajit annouueimr the bids charged that the action of the si- steei conipanles in siil.inlttinc unlfortn bids was taken, under the leadership of the I nited .states Steel corporation." Explains Position. i:plalnin.sr the position token by the railroad administration In placing orders with the steel companies, Mr. Hines said: "When the industrial hoard approved the prices proposed bv the steel Interests it became at once apparent to me, and I so indicated in various discussions with representatives of the frovernmertt, that that approval would enconrnKc, the steel Interests to stand together on those prices even thovmh Kovernmoptal approval approv-al was withheld, i f0lt. however that even so it wnid bo far more In the pubic pub-ic interest lor the government to withhold with-hold approval and if necessary pay such prices, lor the time helm;, under protest rather than indorse the prices, and that, too, tor the entire calendar Year as was proposed by the industrial" hoard and thereby save an official sanction to prices which were unreasonably hlKh and which would merely serve as a starting point tor still lusher prices later on. "The result has been in exact accordance accord-ance with tills forecast. Six of the lead-inir lead-inir steel interests. In response to the railroad administration's request for bids for steel rails, have submitted bids which are uniform in all respects as to price and conditions of manufacture and are in strict accordance with the prices proposed pro-posed to and approved by the industrial board. In view of the immed'ate need' tor 200,000 tons of steel rails, orders have been placed at the prices submitted, but with emphatic disapproval of the prices and the manner in which they have been established Action is Clear. "That action of these six steel companies com-panies in making uniform bids was taken under the leadership of the United States Steel corporation is clear from the fact that, immediately after the railroad administration ad-ministration announced finally that it would not approve the prices fixed by the industrial board, JudLte Gary, for the steel corporation, took tiie initiative in announcing publicly that the steel corporation cor-poration was strictly .maintaining the prices approved by the industrial hoard and that it seemed to him that would be the attitude of other 'manufacturers." Mr. Hines then reviewed figures show-ins, show-ins, he said, the "heavy profits" of the steel companies in recent years, in support sup-port of his contention that the rail prices quoted were "unreasonable. ' |