Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1889-09-10
The Nursing Mother of Trusts.
From the BALTIMORE Sun, August SO. j

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 a fall in prices dis
tasteful to manufacturers /; third, COM
binations of the latter to raise prices
as against the consumer. When cap
italists, who have rushed into pro-
tected industries in the hope of ex-
traordinary profits, find that ny COM
petition with each other they are de-
feating their large expectations they
unite to limit the supply of their pro-
ducts and raise prices. They could
not raise prices beyond certain point
but for the tariff, which shuts out
foreign competition. Under its cover
they flourish; without it their trusts
and other like schemes would collapse
to the great advantage of the people.
There are industries in which, owing
to peculiar circumstances, trusts may
exist without the aid of the high tar
Tiff, but they are few and may be
counted 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 transportation
till it grew strong enough to stand
alone. The whisky trust is fortified
by various peculiarities of the distil-
ling business. Mr.. Wilson is of opin-
ion that it might perhaps continue to
exist if the internal and tariff taxes
on whisky were both repealed. 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 natural 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
flourish, either by purchase of plant,
as DIR. Ely urges, or by restrictions
placed upon their charges. Not so
the evils produced by artificial mo-
nopolies fostered by the high tariff.
They can be abated only by the re-
peal of laws which empower the home
producer to pluck the consumer and
forbid the latter to seek relief in for
eign markets. The sugar trust is an
odious example of a trust produced
directly by the tariff and dependent
upon the tariff for its existence. The
tariff laws say to the rich and the
poor, 'You shall not buy pound of
sugar from abroad without paying a
fine equal to three-fourths the value
of the sugar" Not in order to get
needed revenue for the government,
but in order, by excluding sugar re-
fined from abroad, to enable home re-
finers to make more money in their
business. The situation 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-born of the trusts
produced and nourished by our tariff
laws. 1t is now, however, only the
eldest of auumerousf family. Thanks
to tariff rate which averages nearly
30 per cent. of the value of ell duti-
bic goods brought into this country,
q 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 protected ar
ticle the production of which may be
centralized in moderate number of
establishments can be made the basis
of trust. What makes the function
| of 70 In,
of trusts" especially odious is the
fact that the tariff and its progeny
exists 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 bel
ly 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 simple cease to buy. There
is no demand for tariff on diamonds.
Diamonds are on the free list, and we
have no diamond trust. 1t is upon
the necessaries of life that the pro-
tectionists want the tariff high, and
when they get it high proceed to ope-
rate by means of trusts. Attempts
to form combinations, Mr.. Wilson
shows, are as old as the history
of trade. The seller is ever trying
to increase his profit. "But such
combinations, he adds, "as our
trusts in the prime necessaries oflife,
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 its pro-
due ers with wall of protecting du-
ties against supplies from without. :"
The failure, on the other hand, of the
paper trusts recently attempted in
England shows that, where the gov
eminent does not shut off the outside
supply, consumers can laugh at many
of the schemes of would be-monop-
olists.
Excursion to Columbus, Ohio.
On account of the meeting of the
Sovereign Grand Lodge 1. o. o. F.. /,
to be held at Columbus, Ohio, the
B. & o. r. r. Co. will sell excursion
tickets to Columbus at rate of one
first-class limited fare for the round
trip. Tickets will he sold September
18th to 10th, inclusive, and will be