The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-07-31
THE G. TRUST.

: The sugar trust perhaps sees that its
days are numbered, and is determined
to rob the people of. as much as pos
sible before the end comes. 1t has
again advanced the price of sugar, this
time on the pretense that raw sugar
has become scarce and higher in price.
The New York Times gives a com
parative statement of the cost OF re-
fined and raw sugars on October LIST,
about which time, the trust was organ
lied, and-now, which shows that the
p~retense is a false one. On October lst
the price Of fair refining in the New
York market was 4 7-8 cents, and it
is now 4 7-8 cents,-no advance what
ever. On October Ist the price OF
."centrifugal" was 5 TIC cents; it is
now 5 3-4-an advance of SIG. These
are the two grades principally used by
refners, and on an average they cost
$50 of a cent more than when the
trust went into the, business of squeez-
ing the pockets of the people, with the
help of a high tariff. How does the
other side of the account stand .? Since
October lst the price of cut loaf and
crusted has been advanced l>l-2 cents,
of granulated l II cents, and stand
ard l cent--an average of nearly | ga.
When it is remembered that an adj
of one cent a pound for a year
means a tax upon the consumer of
over $50, 600, 600, all of which goes to
a few dozen, the magnitude of the
wrong perpetrated by the trust and
the injustice of law which makes that
wrong possible will be apparent. Mag
nifcent fortunes have been acquired
in sugar refining before the formation
of the trust, and it was presumably a
profitable business, but the owners Of
the refineries became dissatisfied with
mere profits. They decided to extort
everything from the people the law
would allow, and are doing it.
The margin beteen tariff taxes upon
raw and refined sugars must be made
narrower.
The above we clip from the Southern
Alliance. There is also a coffee trust,
through whose manipulations immense
fortunes have recently been made in a
few days, and again, within the past
few weeks a bagging and tie trust has
been formed by which the farmers of
the South are placed absolutely at the
mercy of a few money lords and
gamblers. All,this is going on while
the American Congress, through a
committee appointed for that purpose,
is solemnly investigating ~"trusts,"
combines" and monopolistic mean-
ness generally. The people are salts
fed of the wicked oppression Of these
greedy scoundrels; Congress knows
all about it, and yet it sits there in
Washington investigating" while
these men laugh at them and 60 on
boldly and openly in this outrageous
grinding of the honest people of the
country. Why does not Congress
take hold of the matter and provide
laws to put these villains in the peni.
Tertiary? Why We suppose that
one of these days an elaborate report
will be made by this committee and
published at great expense to the
plundered people, telling all about
how it is done, and lacking the nerve
and manhood to enact laws to stop it,
adjourn and the members will return
to their "noble' constituencies and
tell them how hard they had worked
to protect them; and, the people, thou
sands of them will be fools enough to
believe them and will vote for them
again. And yet with all this staring
us in the face, there are farmers in
the land who oppose farmers organ
izations. It is u sincere belief that
in these organizations lies the future
prosperity and the liberties Of this
country. Let the Alliance move for
word.
A STRONG ENDORSEMENT.