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Show mm m bewtk New York, Fob. 9. J. P. Morton may voluntarily testify In New York In a few days concerning Ihe recent purchase by hl3 firm of a controlling interest In the U. S. Tolephonc company com-pany of Cleve-lanel. and the Cuyahen.-a Telephone company of the panic statv. Protesting minority stockholders ri the companies are In Now York taking deposltlnnB to bo used In the Ohi) courts In sultR to check conEtiiiiniu-tlou conEtiiiiniu-tlou of the purchase, maintaining that J. P. Morgan & Co. acleel for the American Telephone & Telegraph company tthe Bell Interests) In acquiring ac-quiring six Independent companies i.i Ohio and ' Indiana, auj -thai, competition com-petition has ceaseJ p that territory, the transaction Is Illegal. Simply Investments. Morgan & Co. have held all along that any purchases maele wore simply as Investments of the firm. H. M. McO raw of Cleveland and Samuel LI. Jeffries of St. I3uls, jointly H-prose-m-lnc minority stockholders, said this afternoon I hat Mr. Morgan had volnj-tf volnj-tf ered as a wltnesa. and thai he would bo called, probably In u .lay or tw. Th j hearing Is being held here before a notary deputized by the Ohio supremo court, wbfre the orlRiual suit wai brought The American Telephone S: Telegraph company contends that tlx- deal never went through, and that It does not now know who owns the Independent company. It further asserts as-serts that competition In that territory terri-tory is as Btron? as ever. ' -That $7,000,000 "Loan." Evidence taken today showed that the American Telephone & Telegraph company negotiated with It. L. Day .t Co., bankers, to acquire the controlling controll-ing interest In the Ohio and Indiana companies on the understanding tbal the American company would tnk" these holdings If It found it could do so legally. Real, Day & Co. acquired tho holdings hold-ings and later disposed of them, but the American company asserts that it was not the .purchaser. The American company admitted today to-day that it loaned Day & Co. more than $7,000,000 to acquire the majority major-ity holellugs, but that, when D;xy & Co. were released from their contract the loan was paid. |