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Show SUGAR TRUST FORMED TO CUHXPEHSE So Testifies Acting President Presi-dent AtKlns Before House Special Committee. REMOVING COMPETITION WAS ONLY A SIDE ISSUE Denies There Was Any Intention In-tention of Increasing Prices. WASHINGTON, Jane 12. So car foil guarded war tba 'operations of in American atagnr Refining company u to less than two years ago, B. B. Atkins, rlc president sod acting head of to corporation, told th bona sugar "trust" Investigating committee today, to-day, that stockholders war accorded no Information a to how th company waa being conducted. Th condition grew so onerous, the witness said, that the New England stockholders combined and obtained control. ' When they did so, in 1910. they . discovered to their aitoniihment that H. O. Havemeyer, the presiding genius of th organization, had main tained hi supremacy with only 2000 shares of stork. The holdings of Mr. Haverneyer at the time of hia death, Mr. Atkins said, were valued at about 200,000, of a total of (90.000,000 ia the American Sugar Refining eompany. "That waa a surprising discovery," he declared. "It had been generally aupposed that Mr. Havemeyer owned the greater part of the stock," be continued. New England! Make Discovery. Mr. Atkins said tha New England Interests In-terests obtained control after a com mittee diecovered. from aa examination that of the stock owners of the American Ameri-can Bugar Refining eompany M per cent were New Knglanders. "We found there were 108,000 New England owners," said Mr. Atkins, "snd 10,000 of these were women. They were helpless, so far as any rep resentation waa concerned, and I was urged to take, a plaiS on th board, which I did." He explained how control for th New England holders was secured by his eieeeseav--wiHt' 'the iesionr"i"m"eniuer C'arr. Charles H. Alien, William B. Thomas aad Edward Marston, all of whom sow represent that majority of the stockholders kaowa , as the New England syndicate. . ' ' The house inquiry into the augar business of the country, conducted by a special committee, formally begaa to day. Witnessea of the leading sugar refineries in the east have been sum- (Continued on page 10.) SUGAR TRUST (t'ontinued from page 1.) moned to appear before the committee and will be followed bv those interested inter-ested in other lines of the sugar business. busi-ness. The committee has announced its purpose to make one of the moat thorough thor-ough investigations ever conducted by a committee of congress. Representative Representa-tive Hardwick of Georgia is chairman chair-man of the committee and is expected to take a leading part in the investigation. investi-gation. Invertlgate Trust Feature Ftrrt. The committee first - took up the American Hugnr Refining company to determine whether the corporation is operating in violation of the anti-trust or interstate commerce laws. attorney general, appeared today as rounsel for the refining company, and Edwin F. Atkins of Boston, vice president presi-dent and acting president of the American Amer-ican Sugar Refining company, wag the first witness examined. Mr. Atkina said the purpose of the formation of the American Sugar Refining Re-fining company in 1887 was to put on their feet a number of sugar refineries that had been operating at a loss. He said the companies had been working without profits for a number of years. The overproduction of refined sugar Dan oeen so great, said Mr. Atkins, that it was believed a nnion of re Dneries would result in greatly reducing reduc-ing this expense. "Did yon expect through this means to avoid some of the competition compe-tition in the business f" asked Chairman Chair-man Hardwick. "Well, I suppose it had some effect ef-fect of that kind." The witness said that seventeen re fineries joined in this merger In 1S87. which was arranged by H. O. Have-mever. Have-mever. Almost all of them, he said, had been doing business at an excessive exces-sive eost. They were scattered throughout New York. New Jersey. Massachusetts, Maine, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Missouri. He was unable un-able to say what percentage of the refined sugar production they controlled. con-trolled. To Rodo.ce Coat of Production. Mr. Atkins was asked many questions ques-tions relative to the organization In 1887' of the Bugar Refineries company, which later became the American Sugar Su-gar Refinery eompany. He said the organisation was to redueee the cost of , production, and that he received for his concern, the Bay State Refinery eompany, eom-pany, which he valued at SCO.OOO, trust certificates of the securities of the holding eompany of a value of $900,000. Representative Madison of Kansas asked Mr. Atkins if it wa, not a fact that previous to 1887 there waa free and open competition in the buying of raw and the selling of refined sugar in this country. "Yea," Mr. Atkin said; "there was free competition." "That competition yon found to be onerous, didn t youf" "Yes, it was." Elimlnatlnf Com petition. "You wished to avoid that competition compe-tition t ' ' Mr. Madison continued. "And it was for that reason Mr. Havemever favored with youraelf and about another doaen sugar manufaeturera and agreement agree-ment to eliminate this competition, was it nott" "Well." Mr. Atkins said, "the principal prin-cipal object was to reduce the cost of production." "There were three purposes, were there not, that influenced you; first, to eliminate competition; second, to obtain ob-tain the best possible prices for your products, and, third, to reduce the eost of production f" "I think the third reason was what was in onr minds primarily," said Mr. Atkins. . Mr. Madison asked him if it was not a fact that in 1887 the seventeen companies com-panies combined were in control of 90 per cent of the sugar business of the United States. Mr. Atkins said he thought this an exaggeration and explained ex-plained that the American Sugar Refining Re-fining company waa formed in 1491 to succeed the trusteeship of the Sugar Refineries company because the legality le-gality of the latter organixation was questioned. . Why Atkina Got in. Mr. Atkins testified that he had been vice president of the American Sugar Refining company two years ago at the instance of New England stockholders who had been unable to secure iafor-mstion, iafor-mstion, front the company as to the business it was doing. "I often tried to get It," he said, "but tnejr alwava turned me oft good naturedly. They never published any report We knew they were doing a good business, because the dividends were always paid." |