Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-07-26
HOME MARKET CLUB TRAcTS.-NO. /.
fsTrusts" Are Not the Result of a Protect
i've Tariff.

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 deter
mined to make the policy of protection
odious by falsely charging it with re-
sponsibility for every unpopular condl-
ton 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 the al
legged fostering of ''trusts." But here, as
elsewhere, facts are against them, as will
be seen by glance at history, past and
present.
TRUSTS or ''pools," or combinations
by whatever name, are far from being
modern cOntrivances for controlling
prices, and are by no means confined to
the United States. In fact, the Crust"
of to-day is Of English origin; and, I'M
fortunately for the free trade advocates
purpose, did not come INTO promi1 ence
in England until 1648-two years after
the adoption by that nation of her exist
ing free trade policy. This combination
was in the tin mining district of Corn
wall and Devonshire, and was intended
to affect the price of a metal on which
there was no tariff.
Coming down to the present: the great
copper ''trust, which recently succeed
ed in carrying up prices to an unprece-
dented figure, originated in France,
where there are no copper mines to pro-
tect. England to-day has a 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 cur most formidable
''trust' is the Standard Oil Company,
with coal oil on the free list. Ut may be
well to remember that the present Secre-
tary of the Navy is a member of this
Standard Oil combination.) Then, again,
we have the coffee Crust" which has
succeeded in materially increasing the
price of coffee within the past year and
half, while every one who cares to IN
quire knows that coffee has been on the
free list since 1878.
In the face of facts like these, it is
daily charged that ''trusts," inherited
from England, and fourishing as never
before under the present pro-British adj
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, would operate to render combina-
tions ali the more difficult, by requiring
increased capital for holding and arbi-
trarily forcing up the prizes of commodi-
ties. 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
combinations more difficult, and keeping
every business avenue open to untram-
meled 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
unpatriotic policy they have espoused,
and will deceive none but the unthink-
ing.-Chicdgo Inter- Ocean,.