118 AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY AND TRUST QUESTION 



solve the combines of manufacturers? Since this question is one 

 of fundamental economic and social significance, it is here con- 

 sidered at length. And furthermore, farmers are now combining in 

 large groups, and wisely so, for the purpose of collective activities, 

 and hence this question has more than academic interest for them. 



The " Harvester Trust." Every farmer who uses tillage tools 

 is interested in the so-called " harvester trust." No large industrial 

 corporation has been more discussed in the farm press than the 

 International Harvester Company. But a small part of this dis- 

 cussion has shed any light on the subject. Yet there are literally 

 thousands of pages of sworn testimony available, setting forth the 

 history and methods of this company in the minutest detail. The 

 history of this company has wide economic and social implications. 



Its History. The International Harvester Company was 

 organized in 1902 as a consolidation of five manufacturers of 

 harvesting machines in the United States, namely, the McCormick 

 Harvesting Machine Co., Deering Harvester Co., Piano Manu- 

 facturing Co., the Warder, Bushnell & Glessner Co., and the 

 Milwaukee Harvester Co. The companies thus consolidated had 

 in 1902 about 90 per cent of the total production of grain binders 

 in the United States and about 80' per cent of the total production 

 of mowers, the two chief kinds of harvesting machines. The inter- 

 ests included in the combination had previously -been in keen 

 competition. An attempt made in 1890 to establish a general 

 consolidation of makers of harvesting machines was a failure, and 

 from that time on until the merger, competition was severe, result- 

 ing in costly duplication of sales agents and traveling salesmen. 

 After its organization, the International Harvester Company at 

 once began to acquire competing makers of harvesting machines. 

 In January, 1903, it acquired control of D. M. Osborne & Co., its 

 chief competitor. By 1904 control had been secured of several 

 other concerns, including the Minnie Harvester Co., the Aultman- 

 Miller Co., and the Keystone Company. From manufacturing 

 harvester machines the company pushed on into new lines. Among 

 the most important of such lines were tillage implements, manure 

 spreaders, farm wagons, gasoline engines, tractors, and cream 

 separators. In order to obtain its raw materials more economically, 

 efficiently and promptly, and to save the margins taken by useless 

 middlemen, the company entered the fields of raw material and 

 transportation. It secured control of ore lands in Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, and Michigan, coal lands and coke ovens in Kentucky; 

 blast furnaces for the production of pig iron, steel mills and rolling 



