The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-11-12

promising LruSt. Ills
trust produces more than hall OF the
distilled spirits of the country, only
the smaller part of its product being
used for beverage primarily, ana IL Is
easy to zee that with the surplus
product worked off it will have the
power to stimulate prices so as to IN
crease it's present handsome profits. :
corroN COMBINATION.
When the cotton-gathering season
began last year there came up from
the planters of the South a cry OF dis
tress and Indignation at a sudden and
mysterious increase in the cost of bag
ging use1 by them in baling their cot,
ton. 1t was supposed at once that a
cotton bagging trust had been formed.
This bagging is made from jute butts,
or the butt ends of jute stalks, which
are imported into this country from
India and manufactured in American
mills. The price per yard of bagging
had advanced over five cents, or
nearly doubled, although the price of
iute butts was lower than it had been
for many years. AS it requires about
As, 600, 600 yards to bale the cotton
crop, there was an evident scheme
somewhere to take from the meager
profits of the Southern farmer the
sum of two and a half million dollars
of extraordinary and unjust exaction.
Indeed, the farmer, of every part of
the country, is probably learning that
the combination or "trust" looks
with specially tender and watchful
solicitude after his welfare, and is
gradually surrounding him with q
Gordon of "pluck-me stores" which
will efectually save him from the
evils of excessive or premature wealth.
Investigation, however, developed,
not a cotton bagging trust, but an ex-
ceedingly shrewd and effective combi-
nation, that had made a temporary
"corner" in cotton bagging by means
of which it could dictate prices in the
American market.
CONDITIONS FOR CORNERS.
Liz COuuIG1OuS 1OI SuCu q CO11O4
were especially favorable.
The tariff tax of three cents a yard
on bagging gives our mills such COM
plete control of the home market that
manufacturers in Calcutta or else
where do not look for sales here, and
accordingly adjust their production to
the needs of India. The demand is
confined to a few months in the year,
and prices are not given out or known
until the demand begins.
The bagging is an article of abso-
Lutte necessity to the planter, and one
for which he cannot wait when once
the ginning season is upon him. It
was, therefore, only necessary for
those who were planning the move
ment to ascertain, as they did, that
there could be no immediate relief
from the Calcutta mills, which had
other contracts on hand, and not ex-
pecting an American demand, could
not manufacture and ship to our mar
kets in time to meet a sudden order.
These things known, it was possible,
by secrecy of movement, without
resorting to the machinery of the
trust, to bring about a very successful
temporary combination of some of
the home producers to control the
years supply of bagging, and thus
dictate its price in the market.
SUDDEN AND AUDAcIoUs FoRAYs.
It is not necessary that I should de-
scribe in detail the plan by which this
was accomplished. Given the favor
able-conditions mentioned and an un-
~suspecting victim and it requires no
great a~stuteness to make a "corner"
that will, while it can last, gather
even richer harvests than a trust.
Corners are unfortunately not uncom-
mon in our experience. They are
sudden and audacious forays, where
success depends upon, the unexpected
ness of the onset and the speed with
which the plumber can be gathered
and carried off. Trusts are permanent
armies of occupation which quarter
their soldiers in every household.
[ have thus passed in review the
four combinations investigated by the
committee of the House of Represen-
tatives.
There is another class of trusts,
whose names at least are becoming
familiar to readers of city papers,
such as the gas trust, the street rail
way trust and the like to which l may
devote a few paragraphs in closing
this paper.
CHICAGO GAS TRUsF.
The recent experience of the city of
Chicago may be cited as to the mode
of forming a gas trust. According to
the facts, as far as they can be gath
cred, a party of capitalists from the
East bought up, by the outlay of large
sums of money, almost all the shares
of the most prosperous gas company
in that city. They immediately elect.