Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-07-05
The Tariff and ssTrusts. /"

The men who have assumed the
task of tearing down the barriere
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 responsible
lily for every unpopular condition
which the business of the country
experiences.
Among the more recently dis
covered evils of a protective policy
to which these free trade advocates
point is the alleged 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 combi-
nations 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 trust" Of to-
day is of English origin; and
unfortunately for the free trade
advocates purpose, did not come
into prominence in England until
I848, two years after the adoption
by that nation of her existing free
trade policy. This combination
was in the tin mining district OF
Cornwall 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 recent
ly succeeded in earring up prices
to an unprecedented figure, orig
mated in France, where there are
no copper mines to protect.
England to-day has a coal oil
trust, though no coal oil wells,
and no tariff on coal oil. Canada
like ourselves, has a 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 Com
pany, with coal oil on the free list
1t may be we'll to remember that
the present Secretary Of the Navy
is a member of this Standard Oil
combination.) Then again we
have the Coffee trust" which has
succeeded in materially increasing
the prices Of coffee within the past
year and a half, while every one
who cares to inquire knows that
coffee has been on the free list since
1873.
In the face of facts like these, il
is daily charged that trusts
inherited from England, anc
fourishing as never before under
the present pro-British administra-
tion-are an outgrowth of the
American protective policy. The
same free trade advocates, with
unabashed inconsistency, charge
against a protective tariff that il
materially increases the prices o.
protected products. This, if true
would operate to render combina-
tons all the more difficult, by
requiring increased capital for
holding and arbitrarily forcing up
the prices of commodities. The
real truth is that all these CONNER
cial combinations, like those
between 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 al
combinations more difficult, anc
keeping every business avenue
open to untrammelled competition
This appeal Of free trade advocates
to the general prejudice against
''trustS" but betrays the absence o.
facts and arguments in support O.
the unpatriotic policy they have
espoused, and will deceive none
but the unthinking.