The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1888-04-07
How the TRUSTS are Protected.

are now quite familiar to the
country. 1t is only Necessary that
the several firms or associations
engaged in manufacturing a stated
article should take an inventory of
their property, which is sent into a
central head and which in time is
sues certificates of stock, which
may represent real or fictitious
value, as the case may be. This CEN
trail head, which is unidentified and
unknown so far as the general pub
lie is concerned, then takes absolute
management of the business of the
associations entering into the com
bine, fixes both selling prices OF the
manufactured article and buying
prices of the raw material, limits
production, regulates the price of
labor and crushes out opposition in
the same line of business. From it's
inordinate profits it issues dividend
to the several associations upon the
amount of their stock, and whether
they have been in active business
or shut down by the central head
during stated period, they equally
share in the profits of the combine.
1t will be seen at once that such
combines, or trusts, at once destroy
all competition in the buying and
selling market, and are thus en-
abled to rob at will, at both ends of
the line. AS showing what perfect
control the trust exercises over the
classes of,husiness taken in hand by
them, and to what extent they are
enabled to force prices up, it may be
stated that a buyer on Dec. 6,
1886, purchased in New York No. 6
xxx envelopes for $1.05 per NJ,
while less than Il year later, during
which interval the envelope trust
had been formed, the same kind of
envelopes cost $1.35 per NJ, or an
advance of nearly 80 per cent. ct
may be stated here that envelopes
are protected by duty of % per
cent, and while the bonus that goes
to the trust on each $l0O of product
is $40 the whole expense for labor
on 800 of product is only $l1. Thus
if manufacturer should turn out
100000 of product per year he
would eXpend $4,000 for labor and
pocket 100000 bonus in excess of
his legitimate profits if there was
no trust and no tariff on envelopes.)
But the envelope trust is not the
worst of these machines of oppres-
sion of the people of the country.
Linseed oil is protected 81 per cent,
and of course the robbery of it's
victims is in proportion to the
amount of protection awarded it by
the tariff. 1t pays to labor $5 on
each 500 value of product, and to
the manufacturers $50 of bonus on
the same amount of product. The
salt trust is protected 30 per cent,
and on each 500 of product pays
labor $25 and pockets $33 of bonus.
The plow trust, protection As per
cent, take $33 of bonus to itself
and pays 500 to labor on the same
amount of product; the cordage
trust, protection 20 per cent, takes
$40 and pays labor $12; the paper
bag trust, protection 35 per cent,
takes $26 and pays labor SIS; the
Bessemer steel trust, protection "a
per cent, takes SAC and pays labor
SO; the soap trust, protection 26 per
cent, takes $40 and pays labor IS.
And so we might go on through the
whole list of trusts, the general
steel, nail, general iron, copper,
zinc, tin, lead, rubber, sugar, ETC.,
and it would be found that in near
ly every instance the trust has suc-
ceeded in swelling it's profits a
greater amount than its entire eX-
penditure for labor. And yet peo-
pie wonder why labor is oppressed
while capital faunts itself in the
open places, why there is an in
crease of hundreds of millionaires
and thousands of paupers, why
small business enterprises are
crushed and great ones take their
places. why farmers and the unpro-
tected classes find it harder and
harder each year to gain an exist
ence (having long since abandoned
any attempt to keep out of dbt or
to lay aside anything for their fami-
lies when they turn their bodies
over to the coffin trust), and why it
is the Democrats want to bother
with the tariff, anyway.
1t may be, as charged, that there
are trusts whose existence it not de-
pendent upon the tariff, but it will
be found that in nine cases out of
ten the trust is the direct creature
Of the "protection" afforded by the