STEEL TRUST.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 641, 19 October 1909, Page 7

STEEL TRUST.

• ; 'ANEW.'OTADE AIiBANGEIIENT.". tUj .TelcErnpb.- I'resa Aaaoclallnn.-Ootirrllht .1 :,...■ ■■■•: :',.'''■ Now, York, October 17. ■ ,Mr. 6ary, ; .chairman of thoTJnited Stntiis. Steel Corporation, has'announced that a trade arrangement; has-been ' concluded -abolishing. friction with-: the independent-firms. ..." f - ■The combination controls 87 per cent, of the ;Unitod States output. . ;,: '-: "'v-'' L : "'' ;■• - RECENT. RATE-CUTTING. V ;. [•The Stoel Combine, the "Billion '.' Dollar Trust as it is sometimes called'in the United States, ; made,a.determined .effort to'maintain the prices of their products, at tho. high levels which wero hardly warranted , even during the most prosperous iseriod of 1907, :and'.which wore certainly not justified-during the'loss satisfactory months of 1008. Those independent steel, raanufaotnring'conoems iwhich wished■! to . reduco selling rates, preferring active plants and low prices to higher figures .and . idlo. workshops,; were threatened with refusal' by the .-Trust, in the shape'.of' a-rate-cutting war. -The Independent 'concerns nevertheless 'broke awny from existing pri6es, nnd'in February of this ; par it : _ woei'announced that the, Steel Trust had decided to "create , an-open market, in der _ to' retaliate upon; the , ' , independent companies who .'have been putting prices consider- , ably for several months past." •' , ... , -.- ! This -reversal of the Steel Trust'policy, and the prospect: of fierce-rate-cutting competition with, the independent .firms, was expected to make, things .warnv for the latter. Since then, however, there has,been a steady improvement in.the, market, with a .general upward ten-1 dency.. In August last it was announced that }}}? ,°teel 'Trust had ngairi advanced .prices, its action being'.in response to the increases recently . nindo by the independent-.steel companies. Apparently the, upward market has smoothed the'way to a readjustment of differences \and a new "trade nnnngeinent."