The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1889-09-04
TRUSTS a lTorIopoIfes.

TRUSTS "a lIOEIOPoIfes.
In his seventh paper the Hon.
William l.. Wilson DISCUSSES trusts
in their character as monopolies.
To become monopoly, it is shown,
is the main object of the formation
of every trust. In other words, the
trusts chief purpose is not, as it
would have the public believe, to
improve the manufacture of an ar
ticle, nor to secure to the public tho
benefits that flow from production
on a large scale, but to lower as far
as practicable the price it pays for
its raw material and to raise as high
as possible the price the public pays
for the finished product. Expert
ence shows that tho public can pro
tect itself from frauds in the quality
of articles without recourse to the
expensive machinery of the trust.
AS for the advantage of cheapened
cost, arising from production on a
large scale, brief experience has
shown conclnsively that, however
great that advantage is, it is always
appropriated by the trust and never
conferred upon the.consumer. The
large dividends of tho trusts on
diminished production make it per-
fectly clear who the benefciaries of
the new combination really are
The sugar trust, for example, opera
ting but eleven of it's refneries,
earns and pays large dividends on
the watered stock of sixteen refin-
cries, and the whisky trusts, opera
ting but twelve distilleries, pays
handsome dividends upon the wa
tered stock of eighty-one distilleries.
Facts of this kind indicate beyond
question that, whatever else has
been done. these trusts have limited
the supply of their products, and by
means of such limitation have been
enabled to run up prices. To con-
troll the supply is indispensable to
the success of every trust This
can be effected only by destroying
competition and the possibility of
competition in the open market. In
the natural course of things the
"higgling of the market" is the
means by which prices of commodi-
ties are fixed. That is to say, it's
prices are the outcome of the con-
test between the seller and the
buyer, the former trying to get the
highest figure for his wares and the
buyer trying TO buy them at the
lowest. The holder of given arti-
Gle, competing with each other to
effect sales, ultimately, if the supply
is ample, agree to take reasonable
profit; if for any reason the supply
runs short there is a possibility of
exacting larger profit and the,
seller avails himself of it. The
scheme of the trust is to produce an
artificial scarcity, to keep the sup
ply of necessary article always
short, to suppress the "higgling of
the market" to hold all retailers
under eheck-in a word, to possess
a monopoly. "Wherever competi-
ton is not" said John Stuart Mill.
monopoly isl No better defini-
ton can be devised for the hateful
thing signified by this hateful word.
Few words in our language coniure
up ideas more repugnant to equality
of citizenship and free institutions.
Monopoly, as signifying privilege
of the few to exact unearned money
from the masses, is term associated
with all the wrongs and abuses of
monarchial government. The ex-
istence of a privileged class-mon
who, by virtue of some artful manip-
ulation of law, commercial or other,
reap the rewards of other mems la
Dor. That we have such class
among us in the organizers of trusts
is made very clear by Mr.. Wilson's
lucid account. of their suppression of
competition and the effect of that
suppression upon the incomes of the
people. Its baleful influence is felt
unfortunately not alone by the con
lsumers of the products of trusted