The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1889-08-09

Congressman Iliss' Views On the
Danger Of Foreign Investments
IN American Industries.


| countryY was asked of Congressman A. L.
| Bliss yesterday by a Herald reporter.
1 lam opposed to trusts on principle, be-
| lieving they are menance TO the general
prosperity of the people. / am opposed to
| the salt trust because its ultimate aim will
| be to put salt on the free list, and place the
English and Canadian product on precisely
| the same footing as our own in the Ameri-
can markets. l am absolutely opposed to
any North American Salt company Qimited)
or any other trust that permits foreigners to
buy, up or in any measure control American
salt, coal, wheat, beer, brick, flower, paper
or any other article that is grown or manu-
featured in the United States. am con-
WINGED there is cause for alarm In the plant
ing of the foreign millions in the business
centers of this country in trusts and other
mOnopolies for the purpose of crushing out
small American industries, and unless
check is put upon IL serious complications
will arise from il in the next decade. These
| Anglo-American trusts are wholly un-Amer-
| lean i'm their designs and should have no
place among us. They have already seri-
| Ously disturbed the commercial system OF
the world and are now attacking this coun-
try under all plausible DISCUSSES of cheaper
products. Cheapness Is the curse of Eng
land today, and will just as inevitably in
|
has these of Europe. BY limiting produc-
ton and raising the price on the reduced
supply of commodities, these trusts are
| forcing laborers out of work on the one
| hand and seeking to starve them into sub
| lection on the other Small dealers i'm every
| line of business are pushed to to the wall.
Hands that are now busy will become idle,
and all this condition of things will inevita-
bly, follow the crushing out of competitive
commerce"
Then you think that these trusts will
crush out the smaller industries of the cOun-
try"
''That is their aim or else there would be
no object in organizing them. They must
be masters of the commercial situation or
nothing, and as a result all the diversified
industries which now build up the small
cities, towns and villages of the country
would soon become things of the past in the
| gigantic efforts of the trusts to centraliZe in
one or two great business centers. 1t is not
! the great industries that develop the coun-
try and splead prosperity every where. 1t is
the thousand and one small factories scat
tered all over the land, which provide labor
for the people that have made nation like
ours SO great and prosperous These local
industries are the backbone of the city or
village in which they are located, and it is
on these widely scattered diversified interests
that the trust has its eye, and they must be
stamped out to make absolute control of the
markets of the country possible. The
shutting up of these home industries will be
disastrous to the people, and will throw out
of employment thousands of laborers who
are today contented and happy. Trusts are
simply gigantic monopoly designed to ell
rich the few, and centralize all power and
| authority into as narrow scope as possible
SOFAS to make its control over the CONNER
cial interests of the nation the more absolute.
| To do this, as in the case of the North
American Salt company Qimited), English
millions are to be invested, and OF course
English salt will not be overlooked. l can
not see the slightest necessity for the Eng
| lish raid on American salt interests pro-
posed. There is plenty of money to be had
in this country to handle the American pro-
| duct and warn the promoters of the salt
trust that they will strike snag far more
formidable than they imagine, If they at
tempt to force the American salt business to
| the wall by an Anglo-American combina-
| ton of capital. The American people will
| resent this wholesale attempt of English
control of America products. 1t will be the
aim of the North American Salt Company,
limited, to kill off competition by shutting
down every salt block that remains out Of
the trust. They will buy where they can
and crush where they can not buy, and will
by every method possible, seek to control
the product, so as to corner the market.
am at loss to know why the North Ameri-
can Salt company Qimited) should ask Eng
lish millionaires to invest in an American
salt trust unless there are to be enormous
profits in the investment, and the people
will have to make these profits in some way
so that any way you look at the trust il is q
| menace to the best interests of the American
people and to none more than laboring class
es.'
''Then you will not join the North Amer
lean Salt trust LIMITED to the whole earth)?'
''NO sir. | will not. AS salt manufact-
urer | am opposed to the business methods
it proposes, and as an American citizen the
idea of permitting foreigners to buy up our
industries and control our markets and our
labOring men is repugnant to me. AS Amer
leans we can take care of our own business
affairs. We have demonstrated to the
world that we are capable of building up the
greatest nation OH the globe. We have also
shown that none surpass us in the magni-
tude Of our manufacturing resources, and it
seems strange, at this late day, long after
we have established our ability to take care
| of ourselves and our business interests, that
| we should be compelled to invite English
gold among us to help us to run our COM
mercial affairs. There is danger to the
country i'm this latest British invasion of
America. Englishmen never invest dol
lar except for selfish purposes, and when
the Anglo-American trusts have succeeded
in crushing out American competition by
closing the smaller industries scattered
throughout the land, who will be the gamer?
Certainly not the American people who will
see the general prosperity of the country Grip
pied through the greedy efforts of Anglo
American monopolists. The whiskey trust,
the sugar trust, Standard oil trust and all
other organizations of the kind, made pre-
cisely the same promises to the country that
the North American salt trust Qimited)
is now doing, who all went deiberatively to
work to crush out competition wherever it
existed. The sugar trust is today buplen
ing the people with dear sugar. 1t is folly
to argue that such a company as the propos-
ed salt trust does not enter into business for
the purpose of creating monopoly. If the
trust does not intend to crush out all legiti
mate competition why should 1t absorb the
salt works wherever II can? Why should it
form, !hlliancewith English millions and the
| great English salt trust? / am oDposed to