ITEMS OF INTEREST April 2, 1910 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Sworn statements and other documentary evidence intended to support the charges made against the United States Steel Corporation by the American Federation of Labor, have been presented to Attorney-general Wickersham. The evidence follows the petition of the organization to President Taft, who referred the whole matter to the attornye-general. Aside from alleging that the Steel Corporation exists in restraint of commerce and trade, the federation's chief complaint is that it employs conditions unsatisfactory to organized labor and has used various means to prevent labor organizers from working among its employees. Part of the argument is an effort to show that the Steel Corporation exists in violation of the Sherman law and certain provisions of the Wilson tariff act. The corporation's ownership of coal and ore lands is said to be part of a monopoly; it is charged with having crushed transportation competition on the Great Lakes, and in some instances on the railways. Its acquisition of Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company is condemned.

Simultaneously with the returns of indictments against the National Packing Company and its subsidiary companies, charging violation of the anti-trust law, United States District Attorney Sims also filed a bill in equity, for dissolution of the alleged trust. The bill names not only the National Packing Company, but the Armour, Swift and Morris and other companies, and the individuals who dominate and control these concerns. It is apparent from the bill and the indictments that the Government regards the National Packing Company as the instrumentality through which, it is alleged, the packers have been evading the anti-trust law, and by means of which they have been making their combination effective. It is believed that if the National Packing Company is broken up. the alleged evils of this combination will be remedied.

The bill terminating the present lease of the fur seal killing company on the Pribiloff islands in the Pacific, and authorizing the secretary of commerce and labor to declare a closed season on the islands, has passed the Senate. The herd of seal had diminished from forty-five hundred thousand in 1867, when the United States acquired the islands, to fewer than one hundred thousand at the present time, and it is the opinion of experts that unless the seals are protected they will be entirely exterminated within two or three years. According to the lease, the holding company was allowed to kill fifteen thousand fur seals every year. These sold in the English market for about $465,000. The North America Company has been paying something over ten dollars for every seal it killed.

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