Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-11-07
pRoTEcrIoN AND TRUSTS.
They Are Children of the Same Parents
Greed and Monopoly.

whether their bliss is rational or IRA
tional.
Senator Sherman is reported to have
demonstrated that protective tariff
does not encourage trusts and combine
tions. He demonstrated it by saying
SO, which is quite enough for the believ-
ers in his infallibility. Unfortunately,
when he had said so, he did not STOP
He went on to argue the question, and
to enlarge on it till he virtually adj
mltted that the tariff may encourage
trusts.
AS to his argument, it consisted in the
statement that trusts exist in free-trade
countries as we'll as in those where pro-
lection prevails. This is true, but it
only proves that the tariff is not the
only cause of trusts. 1t certainly does
not prove that protective tariff does
not encourage trusts. 1t would be just
as logical to argue that rain does not
wet the ground because the ground is
sometimes moistened with water from
bucket or a hose. No intelligent man
maintains that trusts may not exist
without the aid of protective tariff.
Any other device which excludes COM
petition will answer the purpose of the
trust.
Senator Sherman is not of the opinion
that trusts are private affairs with which
nobody has any right to interfere. On
the contrary, he takes strong grounds
against them. He says on this point:
81 believe these trusts and combinations
against public policy, and should be declared
null and void. 1t is difficult to deal with them
by legislation, but yet it is the duty of State
Legislatures to pass proper laws to prevent
these combinations When corpora
tions engaged in particular business combine
together with a view to prevent competition
and to advance prices on the necessaries of life,
they become the enemy of society," and should
be dealt with with bold, strong hand
So far is we'll; but Senator Sherman
goes farther. Promising that sit is the
primary object of protection to invite
the fullest competition in domestic pro-
duction''-a statement which we shall
notice presently-he continues:
.'If such individuals or corporations combine
to advance the price of the domestic product
and to prevent the free result of open and fair
competition, I would without moments hest
tation reduce the duties on foreign goods COM
peting with them, in order to break down the
combination
Why reduce the duties? Only mo-
ment before the Senator had said it was
''a grave error" to say that protective
tariff encourages trusts, and yet he de-
clares himself ready to reduce the
duties, diminish the protection, in order
to discourage, or rather to break them
down. How can they be broken down
by the repeal or modification of laws
which lend them no encouragement? In
proposing to break down combinations
by reduction of duties Mr.. Sherman
surrenders the whole case.
Trusts are not always caused by pro-
lection, but both are parts of the same
system; they are alike the tools of
monopoly. Monopoly is not fastidious
about the means it employs so long as
its end is reached. Many years ago
certain manufacturers of the United
States combined with one another and
with majority of both houses of Con-
gress ''to prevent competition and to
advance prices on the necesSarieS of
life" and they succeeded. 1t is
''grave error to say that it was the pri-
mary object of these people to invite
competition in domestic production. The
competition which they combined to pre-
vent was foreign competition, it is true,
but they would have sought to limit
domestic competition also if they had
seen their way clear tC it's accomplish
ment. The best proof of this lies In
the fact that they have since combined
for this very purpose. To allow free
domestic competition was OF their sob
ject;'' they regarded it only as their
misfortune that they must allow it.
Since the constitution provides for free
trade among the States, domestic COM
petition can not be shut out by a tariff.
For many years the exclusion of foreign
competition was all that they required,
for domestic competition is of slow
growth in branches of business which
demand immense aggregations of capital
and enormous plants. But the greed of
monopolists increased even faster than
domestic competition, and she time came
when they were no longer content to
endure even the moderate pressure of
domestic competition. Hence the crea-
ton of the trust which was relied on to
do for competition at home what pro-
lection had done for competition from
abroad. The trust is the Outgrowth and
the companion Of projections; the one is
the complement of the other. Taken
together, they form complete system
for excluding competition. AS Senator
Sherman and men of his class maintain
that the great industries of this country
can not be carried on without the aid of
our present high protective tariffs, so
many of the combinations which the
Senator denounces boldly contend that
they can not be carried on without
trusts. They have so long waged sue
cessful war upon competition that they
now do not hesitate to say that it is
destructive to the industries of the
country and must be eliminated. They
are just as ready to assert and to prove
to their own satisfaction, of course
that trusts lower prices, as the protec-
to their own satisfaction, that protec-
ton cheapens commodities. Both con-
duct the argument in the same way;
when their efforts to keep up prices
happen to fail, when prices persist in
declining in spite of them, they claim
the credit of having accomplished for
the country what their most strenuous
exertions could not prevent. Trusts
and protection are the children of
the same parents; their sire is Greed,
their dam Monopoly; and the family
likeness is too strong to lend plausi-
bility to any denial of the relationship.
Louisville Courier-Journal.
F. AN ORGAN PROTESTS.
spoiIsmax Harrison Taken to Task by a