The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-10-15
TRUSTS AND MONOPOLIEs.
NUMBER I.

Z NUMBER I.
Readers of The Sun of June 25 may
have observed a statement in Its
New York letter that the railway
stock market, hereto tore the chief
and favorite field of speculation, was
"overshadowed by the dealings in the
trusts" and those who note its daily
reports from Wall street and other
stock exchanges have learned that
"trust certificates" and "trus5
stocks" have already become common
subjects of investment and speculation
in those exchanges.
Yet, when Mr.. Cleveland, on the
first Monday in December, 1887, sent
his famous tariff message to Congress,
and asserted therein that the combi-
nations existed and threatened to, de
prive the consumers of such articles
as are protected by our tariff from
the benefits of that competition
among domestic producers, which ad-
vocates of protection have always
promised them, his assertion was
promptly challenged and his statement
widely controverted.
The President said: "But it is
now notorious that this competition is
too often strangled by combinations,
quite prevalent at this time and gen
orally called trusts, which have for
their object the regulation of the sup
ply and price of commodities made
and sold by members of the combina-
tions. The people al hardly hope
for any consideration in the operation
of these selfish schemes"
Even a month later, SO well in
formed a statesman as Senator Sher.
man, Of Ohio, in a speech in the Sen
ate, which he published for circulation
under the title "Reply to the Presi-
dents Message" and which was in
tended, not only as a deliberate reply
by a leader of the opposite party, but
MS that leaders bid for the presiden-
tial nomination in his own party,
said, alluding to this assertion of Mr.,
Cleveland: II hope the President
will be able to specify them. 1 know
of none such"
But Senator Sherman could not re.
main long in this blissful ignorance,
and he did not hesitate to propose a
method of dealing with these organi
cations when once he became satisfied
of their existence and their objects
for I have lying before me Senate
bill No. 3445, which was introduced
by Mr.. Sherman on the 4th of last
August, and whose title shows it tc
be a bill intended "to declare unlaw
full trusts and combinations in re
straint of trade and production"
But neither this bill of Senator
Sherman and other threatened legis
lation, nor the denunciation of a large
part Of the press and decided symp
toms of hostility on the part of the
people, have availed to stay the for
nation of trusts or prevent their rapid
spread over the fields of industry anc
trade.
INVESTIGATING THE MYSTERIES.
Meanwhile there is a natural desire
among the people to learn more o
their modes of formation, their oh
jects and methods of operating, anc
especially to learn whether they art
big with the social and political evil
frequently prophesied of them, o.
really, as their defenders have made
haste to claim, useful and commend
able improvements in the instrumen
talities of production and exchange
by whose operation all classes ar,
eventually to be benefited.
It is the purpose of this series O.
papers, undertaken at the request O
the publishers of The Sun, to supply
information on these points, and espe
cially to make clear what a trust i
and how a trust operates, as also t.
indicate and examine some of tn,
legislation proposed in Congress anC
elsewhere for their control or suppress
sion. Their number, magnitude anC
apparent mushroom growth have no
more impressed the people than tn,
fact that there is almost always a
element of mystery and of conceal
ment about their birth and opera
tons.
Fortunately for u present pun
pose, two separate Legislative invest
cations have disclosed the genera
type of the trust, from which varis
tons of species are of minor conse
quence.
A committee of the New Yor
Senate began the inquiry in Febrr
ary,. 1888, and gathered much info1
nation, not only as to such widel
extended organizations as the suga