Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1889-07-16
The origin OF trusts.
From the baltimore SUM.

and RndS 1t In the schemes devised
years ago by our railroads for the
suppression of competition. The
trust as we now have it is the latest
and most perfect development of the
principle of combination directed to
this end. ft is the most successful
effort yet made by the captains of
Industry, says the writer, s'to escape
from the open sea of competition
iato the Unvexed haven Of menop-
oly.'5 IT'S perfection is Indicated by
the fact that in a completely trust
ed industry the manufacturers fix
the price at which they buy the pro-
ducers' raw material, as we'll as the
price at which they viii sell the fin
ished article to the consumer. With
in the limits defined by the tariff tue
'trustea" industries have the COM
munity, therefore, wholly at their
mercy, and can exact whatever
profits they please. To use the re-
port of the committee of the New
York Senate: ''The public at each
end of the industry (the producer and
eonsumer1 is, and is attended to be,
in certain sense, at the mercy of
the syndicate, combination or
trust" There were monopolies in
former times, when kings for con-
sideTation granted to favored indi-
viduals the exclusive right to manu-
facture certain articles in common
use, but such impositions upon the
people for the benefit of the king and
his friends have ceased. The gov
eminent of France still monopoHzes
the manufacture and sale of tobacco,
as our government monopolizes the
postal service, but the income thus
derived is public revenue and is in
lieu of taxes. No objection can be
made, of course, to State inonopoies
the profits from which are devoted
to the public good, but the american
people do very seriously object to
combinations of capital, aided by
public laws, whose object and effect
is the satisfaction of private greed.
Their number is very great already
and is rapidly increasing. Mr.. VIII
son finds the trust under several
forms. The sugar trust and the cot
ton-bagging trnst are examples of
combinations between manufacttr-
ers whose products are protected by
the tariff. The whiskey trust flour
ishes under the restrictions upon i'm
portation imposed in connection with
our internal revenue system. The
Standard Oil trust derived no benefit
from tax laws, but based its power as
a monopoly partly upon its relation
to restricted area of production and
in part upon its control OF means OF
transportation. UBscrupulous use OF
overwhelming capital to ruin uompet-
itors appears to be an instrument upon
which all trusts rely at times for sue
cess. So greatly have the principal
trusts hourished in the last two years
that their stocks and 'certilicates, "
aggregating some hundreds OF mil
lions of dollars, have recently become
the favorites of Wall street investors
and SPECTATORS, to the neglect of rail
road properties. As already stated,
Mr.. Wilson finds in the history OF our
railroads the germinI idea of the
trust. The development of our gil
gantic railway system has three stages
First, the era of rapid construction,
when charters and aid in money were
| given freely by the States; next. the
period ofsharp competition, and lastly
the period of steadily accelerating
consolidation. Restrictions of one
kind or another, together With the
vastness OF. the interests involved
preventing universal consolidation
pools we're devised to obviate the
| fearful losses incurred in railroad
"wa-s The idsa of the pool wa;
seized upon bY ether enterprises, anC
the public soon began to suffer from
the anfhfncite pool, the steel rail poo
and other like devices for restricting
competition. TWAS found, however
that in these industries pools coulC
be used to restrict production as vel
as competition, bringing prices under
absolute control. From the pool
which is common ownership, there
were not many steps. Before follow.
ing up this connection, however, Mr..
Wilson prefers to discuss the method;
of railway management developed il
this country, not only for tile light
they throw on the operations of the
trust, Dat also because they are his.
toricailY in the line of the trusts
development. The standard OIL trust
the first of the brood to attain grea
power, was the product. in fact, of Sc
cret and arbitrary railroad manage
ment.
w. w. Glessner has been appointed
postmaster at Brucctown, Frederick
county, Va, and Scott A. Gather a
Gainsboro', in the same county.
we are informed that Col. Nor
1 gan owns a horse that eats chickens
feathers and whenever he get.
an opportunity.-S6ep. Register.
Unlike his owner, who has never
been partial to feathers-schfte ones
At least was never known to show
one in the days that tried mem.
SOULS" when known as the gaIlan
leader of the fst Va. Cavalry.
STATE OF ONO, Cry OF ToLEDo. /
lucas CouNrY, S. S.
FRANK j. CHEHEY makes oath thai
he is the senior partner of the firm o
f. j. Cheney & Co., doing bushes.
| in tho Citv, Of rPoIaSJn FODnfxy ar