copper producers were on the committee, and I selected them because they were great men * * *”
Now, these men, as members of a government committee, were to all appearances selling to themselves as members of the government committee, and, apparently, buying from themselves as owners and controllers of the great producing combinations. Not necessarily in any discreditable way, but in a very unusual way.
In the face of this condition, Mr. Baruch had the coolness to say, “So you can see that the government was as much in the saddle as it was possible to be.“ The producer-members of the committee, headed by Baruch, were the government, so far as this statement is concerned. Time and again it was shown that the responsible officials of the government were not even visible until this extra-government had determined all the conditions.
- Mr. Garrett—“Did any troubles arise with the committees growing out of the legal situation, that you remember of?”
- Mr. Baruch—“The committees of the trade, especially some of those that I had asked to serve, were very much disturbed about their standing in reference to the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. Is that what you refer to?”
- Mr. Garrett—“Yes.”
- Mr. Baruch—“And also in regard to the Lever Act, on the point that ‘no man could serve two masters.’ * * * There was no basis for it * * * because these men were not serving two masters. They did not make trades with themselves, but, with the instrumentality provided, carried out the government’s wishes or orders or suggestions with reference to the particular industry which they represented.”
The “instrumentality” with which the copper men dealt, for example, was the American Metals Selling Company, which, together with the American Smelting and Refining Company, was represented at Washington by Mr. Mosehauer. The special copper committee, composed of Guggenheim employes, did business pertaining to the “instrumentality“ which carried on the business of the combined copper companies.
It was dangerous. Some of the members seem to
