The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-10
COMBINATION VS.. COMPETITION.

The radical artifciality of our present in
dustrial prosperity is in nothing SO apparent
as in the persistent efforts of almost every
branch of industry to protect itself not alone
against foreign competition by means of
tariffs, but also against domestic competition
by means of combination. Within the last
few months we have noticed in this CITY, in
Philadelphia, and in Pittsburg Pa. conven-
tjons of manufacturers of pig-iron, iron plates
nails, copper, glass, and paper, not to speak
of the coal-mine owners, all held for the pur-
pose of devising remedies against overpro-
duction and against the decline in prices
inevitably resulting from continued competi-
ton; and within day or two there has been
further held in this city convention of the
bar-iron manufacturers of the Atlantic
States, who have formed ''The Eastern Iron
masters Association" for the purpose of
preventing depression of business and local
iealousies" by means of concerted action.
Now, what do all these conventions and
associations mean !? They mean that the pro-
moters and members thereof believe they can
defy the laws of trade and the laws of COM
mon sense, and can continue to fleece the
public in the future as they have done in the
past, without mercy and without Justice.
They mean that the tariff swindle has enabled
them to charge the community more than a
reasonable profit on their goods; that the un-
reasonable profit has induced more men and
tries than can find remuneratve employment
in them; that their unreasonable profits have
so impoverished the ommunity as to disable
it from consuming even the former limited
production, much less the present increased
production; and that all these protected in
dustries are now in position of semi-bank-
ruptcy, against which they try to protect
themselves by signing pledges not to sell
their goods below certain prices, so that
they may still make profit on their limited
sales.
If it were supposable that these men could
accomplish the object they have in view,
their combinations and conventions would
require the most energetic efforts on the
part OF the public to defeat and destroy them.
But their plans can have no permanent in
fuence, and hence would only be worthy of
public contempt or indifference did they not
furnish such an admirable illustration of the
inevitable results to which the practice of
protection leads, did they not clearly prove
to what straits these protected industries are
driven, did they not distinctly forshadow the
desperate efforts these Radical monopolists
will make to maintain their present tariff
protection, and, if possible, still further in
crease it. The whole Radical party is to-day
sustained by the influence of corrupt leaders
who have secured their own election or that
of their friends and tools for the sole purpose
Oh peIpetudIluS duu StIeuStueuluS tuo pro-
sent tariff scheme, which is, in plain words,
the most Gigantic scheme of robbery ever
invented by man.
Stripped of all DISCUSSES, rubbed clean of
all ''circumambient foam" the tariff is law
by which the price of foreign article is in
tended to be artifcially advanced, so as to
enable the domestic producer of a similar
article to obtain from the domestic consumer
precisely similar advance in price. All the
talks about protecting domestic industry,
about elevating domestic labor, about
creating home markets, are either ignorant
delusions or wilful false pretences
the latter. The object of high-tariff men,
the men who, as iron -smelters and rolling mill
owners and salt-malzers and cotton-spinners,
get themselves elected to Congress, and put on
committees of ways and means, and commit
tees of commerce and manufactures, or who
spend winters in Washington lobbying all
day and half the night-these men have no
other object than to be enabled by law to
charge the domestic consumer more for their
products than they could get without the law
Sefog it as you please, that and none other is
the practical object of all protective tariff
legislation. Disguise it, deny it, twist it,
ramify it as you please, no man ever went to
Congress to ask an increased duty on any
imported article except for the purpose of
being enabled to charge every domestic con-
| domestic product.
| Now, as long as the demand keeps pace
| with the production, these protected indi-
| viduals do succeed in getting this extra price,
do succeed in plundering their fello w-citizens
| just so many dollars ton, or SO many cents
| yard, under color or law. But the moment
the demand is no longer equal to the supply,
| either because the profits of the business
| have tempted too many to embark in it or
because the plundered and impoverished
people are no longer able to pay, even then
the tariff will not enable the manufacturers
to keep up the price. They begin to COM
| pete with one another; the natural conse-
quence of competition is lower prices. The
lower prices benefit the people, but of course
they are not relished by the protected manu-
facturers They have become so accustomed
| to large profits, guaranteed to them by law at
the expense of the community, that they have
come to believe that they have vested right
to put their hands in the pockets of the
people. And when they find that the tariff
no longer enables them to do SO, they meet
and combine and agree and pledge themselves
to still help one another to keep up the old
swindle.
Foreign competition is the policeman the
mere fear of whom prevents the domestic
nanufacturerfrom overcharging his customer.
Against that policeman the manufacturers
protect themselves by the tariff. They then
have the victim entirely at their mercy. But
now they are in danger of quarrelline among
themselves about the division of the plunder.
The strong ones want il all for themsel YES
and won't let the little fellows share But
the little fellows are smart, and CRY out 'It
you do not let me share l shall call the police.
man." In other words at two of the recent
conventions in this city the larger manufac