Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 55, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1912 — MERGER IS CONCEALED [ARTICLE]

MERGER IS CONCEALED

HARVESTER FIRM FOOLED PEOPLE FOR BUSINESS REASONS. Company Belonging to international Concern Masqueraded as an Independent, Sayr Official. Chicago, Oct. 11—How the International Harvester company maintained a “Punch and Judy" show of competition between two of its subsidiary, companies, one Of which was believed in the implement trade to be independent, was revealed tn the hearing of the government’s suit to dissolve the tnjst The Keystone company of Sterling, 111., and D. M. Osborne & Co. of Auburn. X. Y.. both owned by the trust, were outwardly belligerent- The Keystone company,” though small, became the stormy petrel of the harvesting machinery trede after it was bought secretly by the International Harvester company in Just about that time the necret leaked out that the Osborne works Were part and parcel of the trust, and it was against this concern that the fighting Keystone company particularly directed its attack.

The seeming bitterness of the Keystone's assault on its sister subsidiary was a sensation in the implement trade, which, of course, knew nothing about the sister relationship. Some one at that time started a report that the Keystone, in spite of Its show of independence, was really owned by the International. This was denied with spirit. Edwin P. Grosvenor, assistant to the attorney general, introduced in evidence a letter written by the management of the Keystone company tn 1905, assuring a retail dealer who had heard rumors of the company’s sale to the trust that he had been “misinformed.” H. B. Utley, now purchasing agent of the International Harvester, but formerly manager of the Keystone works, was on the witness stand. “Why did you write the dealer that you were still independent and were not controlled by the International, when the facts were otherwise?" asked Mr. Grosvenor “As a matter of business policy, I presume.” replied Mr. Utley.