The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-11-05
TRUSTS AND MoNoPoL1Es.
Combining Sugar Interests.


. dition, Subtraction, Divtston. and
Sslsnce-Riches for the
SktHfuL Few.
From the Baltimore SUM-
NUMBER ".
The success of the Standard Oil
Trust" whose general structure L at,
tempted to make plain in my last pa
per, was a marvellous tribute to its
designers. So perfectly had they con
ceived their plan, and with such patti,
ence and care had they marked out its
every detail, that like the great Cor
liss engine at the Philadelphia centen-
NAL it's movements from the begin
ming were as smooth as they were re-
sistless, and had complete mastery of
all the attached machinery. 1t was
capitalized in 1882 at $40, 900, 600,
for which amount certificates were
issued. By 1888 its capital had
grown to $50, O0O, 900, of which less
than Sc, 900, 900 represented shares
issued for stock of new corporations
absorbed into the "trust," and all the
residue stock dividends. In addition
to the stock dividends it had paid
regular quarterly dividends in money,
averaging Z IL per cent. yearly, and
reaching 10 per cent. in recent years.
. The trust certificates, beginning below
par, had gone up to $l65. Thus, in
less than six years, acapital OF seventy
million dollars, at most seVenty-slx
millions, with a less market value, had
grown to a capital of ninety millions,
with a market value of n hundred
and fifty millions, having meantime
paid regular and liberal dividends. In
o word the trust scheme in itself, by
what it had done, and by what it
seemed able to do, had doubled the
value of the property of the combina-
ton, although the increasing produc-
ton of the Russian oil-f1elds was caus-
ing serious competition in foreign
markets. These facts, which sound
like Eastern fables rather than a chap
ter from our recent commercial his
tory, will prepare US for the spread
of the new invention as soon as it's
nature could be discovered and it's
possible effects understood. The next
great combination was "The Cotton
seed Oil Trust" formed by the stock
holders of more than seventy corpora
tons, operating in fourteen States,
which aimed at securing the control
of a recently developed industry, whose
product is fast becoming an impor-
tant article of commerce. Some of
the Standard Oil managers appear in
this trust also. But dealing with an
article of very recent commercial i'm
portance, neither a necessary of life,
nor yet of general known consump
ton, "The Cottonseed Oil Trust i'm
pressed the public more as a Wall
street speculation than as a matter of
immediate concern to them. Sugar,
however, is of daily use in every
household. Its average consumption
in the United States is fifty pounds
per capita, requiring nearly one-third
Of the product of the world. Of this
vast amount we produce, chiefly in
Louisiana, a variable fraction, sversg-
ing about onetenth, and import the
residue in the form of raw sugars,
which are refined in this country, our
tariff duties being prohibitory OF the
refined grades. When therefore it
became known that a large majority
of American refners had formed a
"sugar trust" and its operation was
brought sharply home to every house
hold by an immediate and consequent
rise in the price of an article of uni
versal consumption, public feeling
was at once excited to the point where
Legislatures and courts we're invoked
to uncover, and if possible to suppress
this new form of secret combination.
The trust was framed very
closely upon it's model, but some diff
~ferences must be kept in view from
the beginning.
The Standard Oil trust was simply
a new and more perfect organization
given than already existing combina-
ton.
HOW THE SUGAR TRUST WAS FORMED.
The sugar trust was the adoption
of that organization for the purpose
of forming a combination out of
hitherto independent and competing
companies. The deed under which
the sugar trust was organized was
made in October, 1887. 1t provided
that all parties to it not already cor.
porations, should first become such,
and thereupon that all the shares of
stock in all the corporations should
be transferred to the board of trustees,
eleven in number, designated rs "The
Sugar Refining Company" in Lieu of
which stock certificates declaring that
the holder was entitled to so many
"shares of the Sugar Refneries Com
pany" were to be distributed by the
IL .a-a-al