Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-08-25
ONE OF BLAINE'S LIES.

With Trusts Disprovsd.
ST. LOUIS, August % The Globe Demo
erat Rep prints the following cable:
LONDON, August 22.-Only a sentence
of Mr.. Blsiue's Portland speech has been
csbled here, but that one is comprehen-
4ive enough TO make every mouopolist re-
Vret the day that Submarine telegraphy
was made possible. This sentence reports
Mr. Blaine as saying;
"a protective tariff no more breeds
what the President calls the pestilence Of
trusts than does the veriest free trade
country, which is England, for England is
literally plsstered over, under her syatem
of free trade, with trusts"
Daring the past two days have shown
this statement to some forty representative
Euglishmen, bankers, solicitors, auditors
and the head of great iron, cotton, woollen,
railroad, mining and other enterprises.
without solitary exception they denied
Mr.. Blaiue's statement fatty. Unfortu-
nately the Parliamentary recess has taken
nut of town the most of the heads Of the
government departments dealing with trade
statistics but was lucky enough to find
two officials One OF these was Charles
Miner, private secretary to the Chancellor
Vt the ESchequer, q position equal in i'm
pOrtance and Influence 10 that OF First As.
sistant Secretary of the Treasury in Amer
ioa. Mr.. Miner said:
1.-THE statement that trust or anything
like trust is common in England is absO-
lutely false. marvel at any man COM
hitting himself to an assertion so baretaced
and - capable of prompt and complete
refutation There are certain small local
enterprises, no doubt, in lines which lend
themselves to speculation, where the
large producers have from time to time
combined against the small ones. sup
pose that has been done since the dawn
OF commerce, hut the combinations are
IN the nature OF what you call
orders, and will by no means permit
organized mOnopolies. / do not know OF
the existence in England of single trust,
IN the American sense of the word, unless
It may be this new Cheshire Salt Trust,
cow being mentioned in the papers, and
this is not only an evident imitation of the
American model, but il will not by any
means create a monopoly, but the figures
of the income tax give you better proof
of this than any assertion OF mine. Here
il the return under schedule ID. That is
limited ~ the profits OF individuals and
private firms IN Eugland in business for
the decade of lS7T-SS. The number OF
incomes between ESQ and El,000 in
creased during the decade 10 ~ per cent
The number of incomes over FL, 900 de-
creased q. 40 per cent. This il plain proof
OF the steady and growing distribution OF
the profits of trade and commerce among
the small manufacturers and traders
These figures alone would make nonsense
of Mr. Blaine's talk"
Robert Griffith, the celebrated statisti
clan OF the Board Of Trade, is absent in
Scotland, bat his representative in office,
Alfred + Bsteman, is one Of the principals
Of the department, and also the secretary
of the Royal Statistical Society. He said:
I'VE scarcely know what the word trust
means over here. / should hardly know
my self if had not had occasion, ss a part
OF the work for or sugar bounties confer
enee here, to read up about your sugar
trust. Practically, such thing as trust
does not exist here. The Board of trade
has never had occasion to reckon with the
trust as even trivial factor in the COM
mercial lite of the country. There are =
few lines of production here in which from
time to time attempts are made to create
temporary accommodations for the tempo
rary control of the market. These art
ia commodities like tin, where the sources
Of production are 80 limited that halt
dozen men can control them. but
these combinations are more analogous
TO your corners in wheat or coffee than the
permanent openly organized trusts. They
are really stock speculations. There are
slso some combinations more like your
trusts, which are worked under patents,
mostly in the way Of chemicals, but these
would be incidental TO any country where
there is patent right and have no bear
ing on your question. If Mr.. Blaine wants
TO find substantial and powerful trusts let
him look TO Germany. They have got
their iron rail and plate trusts working
very successfully, and the tendency there
to combinations of that sort is one of the
most marked features of the German in
dustrial situation. But be is all wrong
about England being plastered with trusts;
entirely wrong, assure you"