The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-09-14

trusts of various kinds originate
and flourish. The cause of nearly
all our trusts, he shows, is the tariff.
The series of cause and effect is
this: First, excessive stimulation
by means of duties levied on foreign
products; second, excessive produc-
ton, leading to fall in prices dis
tasteful to manufacturers: third,
combinations of the latter to raise
prices as against the consumer.
When capitalists who have rushed
into protected industries in the hope
of extraordinary profits, find that by
competition with each other they
are defeating their large expecta-
tions they unite to limit the supply
of their products and raise prices.
They could not raise prices beyond
a certain point but for the tariff,
which shuts out foreign competition.
Under its cover they flourish; with
out it their trusts and other like
schemes would collapse, to the great
advantage of the people. There are
industries in which, owing to pecu-
liar circumstances, trusts may exist
without the aid of the high tariff,
but they are few and may be count
ed on the fingers of one hand. The
Standard Oil trust was formed in
the first instance by the fostering
care of the railroads, which lent it
the aid of their monopoly of trans
portation till it grew strong enough
to stand alone. The whisky trust is
fortified by various peculiarities of
the distilling business. Mr.. Wilson
is of opinion that it might perhaps
continue to exist if the internal and
tariff taxes on whisky were both re-
pealed. Gas trusts, street railway
trusts and other local trusts spring
into being naturally because the
business of supplying a given city
with gas or street railways is a ma
tural monopoly, with respect to
which competition has no useful
function to perform. They are, how
ever, minor evils, easily suppressed
by the exercise of powers possessed
by the communities in which they
forish, either by purchase of plant,
as DIR. Fly urges, or by restrictions
placed upon their charges. Not so
the evils produced by artificial mon
opolies fostered by the high tariff.
They can be abated only by the re-
peal of laws which empower the
home producer to pluck the consum-
er and forbid the latter to seek re-
lief in foreign markets. The sugar
trust is an odious example of trust
produced directly by the tariff and
dependent upon the tariff for its ex-
istence. The tariff laws say to the
rich and the poor: "You shall not
buy a pound of sugar from abroad
without paying fine equal to three
fourths the value of the sugar"
Not in order to get needed revenue
for the &C eminent, but in order, by
excluding sugar refined abroad, to
enable home refners to make more
money in ther business. The situa-
ton invites combination of home
refiners to work the duty ON refined
sugar for all it is worth, and they
have responded to the invitation
with the utmost ardor. The sugar
trust has the credit, in fact, of being
the first-bor of the trusts produced
and nourished by our tariff laws. 1t
is now, however, only the eldest of
numerous family. Thanks to tar
if rate which averages nearly so per
cent. of the value of all dutiable
goods brought into this country, a
multitude of industries have now
been trusted, and the number is con-
stantly increasing. After careful
study of the matter Mr. Wilson
holds that almost any highly pro-
tected article the production of
which may be centralized in a mod
crate number of establishments can
be made the basis of trust. What
makes the function of the tariff as
'the nursing mother of trusts es-
pecially odious is the fact that the
tariff and its progeny exist only to
enhance the cost of the necessaries
of life.
Protection" says the well-known
maxim, "to avail anything, must be
got out of the belly and the back of
the people" The price of things
not necessary in the daily life of the
people cannot be increased much by
manipulation. When the price goes
too high the masses simply cease to
buy. There is no demand for a tar
if on diamonds. Diamonds are On
the free list, and we have no diamond
trust. 1t is upon the necessaries of
life that the protectionists want the
tariff high, and when they get it high
proceed to operate by means oftrusts.
Attempts to form combination, Mr..
Wilson shows, are as old as the his
tory of trade. The seller is ever try
ing to increase his profit. "But such
combinations" he adds, las our
trusts in the prime necessaries of life,
in food and clothing, which are pro-
duced by no one people, but freely
in many countries, can be formed only
in country that surrounds it's pro-
ducers with a wall of protecting du.
ties against supplies from without"
The failure, on the other hand, OF
, the paper trust recently attempted
in England shows that, where the
government does not shut off the
outside supply, consumers can laugh