Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1888-07-04
THE TARIFF AND .eTRUSTs. :"

The men who have assumed the task
of tearing down the barriers by which our
markets are defended, and better returns
for labor insured, seem determined to
make the policy of Protection odious by
falsely charging it with responsibility tor
every unpopular condition which the
business of the country experiences.
Among the more recently discovered
evils of a protective policy to which these
free trade advocates point is alleged fos'
tering of trusts" But here, as else
where, facts are against them, as will be
seen by a. glance at history, past and
present.
TRUSTS" or t'pools," or combinations
by whatever name, are far from being
modern contrivances for controlling pric-
es. and are by no means confined to the
United States. In fact the trust" of to-
day is Of English origin; and unfortunate
ly for the free trade advocates purpose,
did not come into prominence in England
until 1S48-two years after the adoption
by that nation of her existing free trade
policy. This combination was in the
mining district of Cornwall and Devon
shire, and was intended to affect the
price of metal on which there was no
tariff.
Coming down to the present: the great
copper trust" which recently succeeded
in carrying up prices to an unprecedented
figure, originated in France, where there
are no copper mines to protect. England
to-day has coal oil trust, though no oil
wells. and no tariff on coal oil. Canada,
like ourselves, has sugar trust, while
allowing sugar to enter her ports free of
duty. Here in the United States our
most formidable trust" is the Standard
Oil Company. with coal oil on the free
list. ct may be we'll to remember that
the present secretary of the Navy is a
member of this Standard Oil combina-
tion.) Then, again, we have the coffee
"'trust," which has succeeded in material
ly increasing the price of coffee within
the past year and half, while every one
who cares to inquire knows that coffee
has been on the free list since 1878.
In the face of facts like these, it is
daily charged that rusts"-inherlted
from England, and fourishing as never
before under the present pro-British aa-
ministration-are an outgrowth of the
American protective policy. The same
free trade advocates, with unabashed in
consistency, charge against a protective
tariff that it materially increases the
prices of protected products. This
if true, wouldoperate to render combina
tions all the more difficult, by requiring
increased capital for holding and arbi-
trarily forcing up the prices of commod-
tiles. The real truth is that all these
commercial combinations, like those be-
tween railroad managers, are very little,
if at all, affected by customs laws; and
the evils with which they threaten the
country are to be averted by national and
state legislation, rendering all combina-
lions more difficult, and keeping every
business avenue open to untrammelled
competition. This appeal of free trade
advocates to the general prejudice against
trusts but betrays the absence of facts
and arguments in support of the unpatri'
otto policy they have espoused, and will
deceive none but the unthinking.