The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-10-22
Artificial Regulation of Prices.

Paris, said that the result of high
protective tariff was TO exclude COM
petition and that consequently the
price of manufactured articles was
regulated, not by laws of supply and
dempnd, but by the mere will of
combined mcnOpolists who exact
whatever they please from the con-
sumer- This Is a true statement of
one of the worst features ofour pro-
tective system, and the man is but
little familiar with the methods of
our protected manufacturers if he
does not know that it is by such
means that the markets Of this coun~
try have baen regulated SO far as our
protected products are concerned.
at the same time that we undertake
TO shut out the products Of foreign
nations we restrict cur own within
the limits of a market too narrow to
absorb the supply. The result is
that the market becomes glutted,
factories are shut down, business
becomes stagnant and labor is
thrown out of employment. To cure
this evil of over production the great
monopolists in the protected indus
tries from their combinations.
Finding that the market is already
Over-stocked with their goods, they
deliberately and by agreement
famOng themselves suspend business
until the surplus on the market has
been consumed, and in the mean
time their employees 20 begging for
work. Another plan is to anticipate
the evil of oYer-produetion by arbi-
trarily limiting the output with in
the estimated capacity for consump-
ton at the same time arbitrarily
fixing the price at whatever figure
they please. The country has just
had a striking illustration OF this
in the action of the principal cSal
producing corporations, and coal
roads, to-wit, the Pennsylvania,
Lackawanna, Lehlgh, Erie. Della
ware Il Hudson, Susquehanna,
Lehigh IL Western, Pennsylvania
Coal Company and the Reading.
These corporations represent com
bined capital Of nearly 500, O0O,0O0
Having ample protected themselves
against foreign competitors, by the
help of protective tariff, AMI Sc,
cured the exclusive benefit of The
home market, they have now deli
berately consplred to take possession
of that market and absolutely con-
troll it at their own sweet will. TO
do this the presidents of the above
named coal roads met together and
agreed to limit the amount of coal
to be mined and placed upon the
market to so much per month, duly
app JrtiOning to each company the
: amount of its output. The amount
of coal to be mined for the month Q
October they agreed should be g
, quarter Of million tons less thar
that Of October of last year, and BY
thus restricting the supply within
the limits OF tue capacity for con
sumptiOS, they were enabled to de
cree that there should be q sharl
advance in the price of coal. Unde
natural conditions an advance il
price would stimulate production t
its full capacity. But under tn
rule of these ruthless monOpOlist
there are NJ laws of trade, excep
such as they arbitrarily enact. The
a. create an artificial scarcity in tn
market in orGer that they may die
tate prices. And let 1t be remem
bered that it is upon the poorest {
the poor that these grinding corpoI
atoms lay their heavy hands. Nc
" simply upon their own labOrers, wh
are thrown out of employment fC
two ar three days in every week
. order that one of the prime necess
" ries of life may not be TOO plentiful
. but every poor labOring man an
: every poor widow, who tolls fro
- morning until night for the suppo
of herself and children, must pa
u tribute out Of their scanty earning
i0 at the behest of this legalized ass
y citation of thieves. How many
poor woman's hearth will be frele
SC and cold during the bitter mont
Go of the coming winter through tt
Il action of these ruthless coal kin,
no man can tell. And this is b
rs enc of many instances. There
I" hardly protected industry in tt
% country in which the same thing h
no not been done--ths necessaries
at life made artiicially scarce and &
ne price artiRcialIy high. Under I
inlquitous tariff system these lord
=. freebootcrs have usurped the pow
he to levy taxes upon rich and Pc
of alike, No Rob Rsy or Roderi
of Dhu ever plundersd ~~the helpIe
sHEs peasantry with such remorselt
- hand as these daintily fed and rich
m clad bandits of projection. 7
or government which legalizes Eu
things while horse thieves end b'
glars are severely punished, nal