The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-07-20

mummy pNH W nun. w III. -. w u
son, of West Virginia. The open
ing paper is preliminary in its
character, and deals especially with
the railroad practices out of which
grew the first great trust" This
first combination-the Standard Oil
Trust-was so clearly born of rail
road determinations that it could
not be properly treated without g
summary statement of the railway
practices out of which it was evolved
The paper is as follows:
Trusts and MonOpolies.
| NUMBER l.
Readers of the Sun of June %
may have observed a statement in
its New York letter that the railway
stock market, heretofore 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 "trust
stocks" have already become com
mon subjects of investment and spec
ulation in those exchanges.
Yet, when Mr.. Cleveland, on the
first Monday in December, 1887,
sent his famous tariff message to
Congress, and asserted that these
combinations existed and threatened
to deprive consumers of such articles
as are protected by our tariff from
the benefits of that competition
among domestic producers, which
advocates of protection have always
promised them, his assertion was
promptly challenged and his state
ment widely controverted.
The President said s'But it is
now notorious that this competition
is too often strangled by combina-
tions, quite prevalent at this time
and generally called trusts, which
have for their object the regulation
of the supply and price of commodi-
ties made and sold by members of
the combinations The people can
hardly hope for any consideration in
the operation of these selfish
schemes
Even a month later, so well in
formed statesman as Senator Sher-
man, of Ohio, in speech in the Sen
ate, which he published for circula-
tion under the title Reply to the
Presidents Message" and which
was intended, not only as deliber-
ate reply by leader of the opposite
party, but as that leaders bid for
the presidential nomination in his
own party, said, alluding to this as
sertion of Mr.. Cleveland: Il hope
the President will be able to speci-
fly them. / know of none such"
But Senator Sherman could not
remain long in this blissful ignor-
ance, and he did not hesitate to pro-
pose method of dealing with these
organizations when once he became
satisfied of their existence and their
objects, for have lying before me
Senate bill No. 3445, which was in
troduced by Mr.. Sherman on the 4th
of last August, and whose title shows
it to be a bill intended "to declare
unlawful trusts and combinations
in restraint of trade and produc-
ton"
But neither this bill of Senator
Sherman and other threatened legis-
lation, nor the denunciation of a
large part of the press and decided
symptoms of hostility on the part of
the people have availed to stay the
formation of trusts or prevent their
rapid spread over the field of indus
try and trade.
INVESTIGATING THE MYSTERIES
Meanwhile there is natural de-
sire among the people to learn more
of their modes of formation, their
objects and methods of operating,
and especially to learn whether they
are big with the social and political
evil frequently prophesied of them,
or really, as their defenders have
made haste to claim, useful and COM
mendable Improvements in the in
strumentalities of production and
exchange, by whose operation all
classes are eventually to be benefit
ted.
1t is the purpose of this series of
papers, undertaken at the request of
the publishers of the San, to supply
information on these points, and es-
pecially to make clear what trust
is and how trust operates, as also
to indicate and examine some of the
legislation proposed in Congress and
elsewhere for their control or sup
preston Their number. magnitude
and apparent mushroom growth have
not more impressed the people than
the fact that there is almost always
an element of mystery and of con-
cealment about their birth and oper-
atoms.
Fortunately for our present pur-
pose, two separate legislative investi-
cations have disclosed the general
type of the trust, from which varia-
lions of species are of minor conse-
quence.
A committee of the New York Sen
ate began the inquiry in February
1888 and gathered much information,
not only as to such widely extended
organizations as the sugar trust, the
Standard Oil trust and the cotton
seed oil trust, but as to quite a
number of similar organizations that
were local to New York city and
Brooklyn.
The resolution under which the
committee acted was adopted on the
10th of February, and required them
to report by March l, and although
they had the assistance of such able
counsel as Gen. r. A. Pryor and Col.
Geo. Bliss, their investigation was
necessarily hasty and somewhat
superficial, but the general features
Of the trust. as outlined in this testi-