TARIFF-MADE TRUST.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 275, 12 April 1913, Page 9

TARIFF-MADE TRUST.

CliH'O CAPITAL CROWS TO £0,000.000 A remarkable story of financing and gigantic profits under the shadow of a high protective wall lias been told before the Ways and Means Committee of the House, of Representatives of the Cnited States. Mr. A. V. Davis, president of the Aluminium Company of America, who protested against any reduction in the existing duty, admitted virtually the existence of a world trust in aluminium. The Aluminium Company of America, be said, was the only aluminium manufactory in the United States. This company owned the Canadian Aluminium Company, and the Canadian company had come to an agreement with six or seven other companies in foreign countries an agreement which practically covered the whole world.

The predecessor of the Aluminium Company of America, it was brought out in evidence, was the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, which began business on the small capital of .C4OOO. From this arose the Aluminium Company of America, capitalised at,€ 200.000, a capitalisation which has been gradually increased until now it stands at £0,000,000. The whole of this capital, with the exception of not more than £400.000. represents stock-dividends, yet a dividend of 15 per cent, was declared on the capital stock in 11)12. A Democratic member of the committee asked the witness, •'When you earn 1.") per cent, on your :W.000,000d01. you are earning from 200 to 22.) per cent, on the actual money which was invested in your plant?" "'Yes," Mr. Davis admitted.