"SWINDLED OUT OF MILLIONS."

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12657, 10 January 1912, Page 9

"SWINDLED OUT OF MILLIONS."

! -•■ WASHINGTON, January 2. . The Congressional Committee, known as the Stanley Investigation Committee, which is inquiring into the affairs of the Steel Trust, heard some sensational evidence last month, .when Mr Lon Meritt, one of the old Western pioneers was examined. Mr Merritt, -who is a typical miner and backwoodsman, claimed to be the discoverer of the famous Meßabaore deposits, now valued at' £140,000,000, and he alleged that he had been swindled out of his property by the Trust magnates. He declared ' that when he discovered the Mesaba mines he went to Messrs John D. Rockefeller, H. C. Frick, Andrew Carnegie, and a few others, from whom he quickly obtained promises of support. Mr Rockefeller was particularly interested, and knowing nothing about company promoting, Mr Merritt declared that he left everything m the Oil King's hands, trusting to his apparent kindness and his reputation for piety. Mr ' Rockefeller formed a com - pany, and witness borrowed morfey from him m order to. take Up shares. The company liad not- long been formed; declared Mr Merritt, when' the Oil King suggested that 'they should "freeze out" the other stockholders, but realising that m any such transaction he would be eventually "frozen out" himself, 1 he refused, saying that, he was not going to i work for "John D's" benefit, and that iif he had been a thief he could have stolen for himself. Witness declared that m revenge Mr Rockefeller called m the loans which had -enabled him to join tlie company, though the millionaire knew that he was at tliat time quite unable to pay. In default of payment Mr Rockefeller foreclosed, and m the. language of the witness "grabbed the' ore interests which I had given Vhirrt:ns' security." He also said that the ftev. F. T. Gates, Mr i Rockefeller's own spiritual adviser, had !' frequently, acted as a gpbetween during the negotiations and was more than anyone instrumental m entangling him m the net, for he relied oh the honesty of a clergyman.