The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-07-02
A GREAT SALT TRUST. "

"A GREAT SALT TRUST.
The enormous competition that has
existed In the salt-producing business
has lessened the cost of this necessary,
so that the less favored localities are
suffering badly. Without doubt salt
has been too cheap. In New York it
has been shrewdly said that a barrel
of the best refined salt costs less than
a barrel of Coney Island sand. The
latter can be scooped up, or at least
only needs to be sifted. Salt is mined,
for the water containing it is evapo-
rated, and finally it has to be purified.
Coarse salt "a be bought at So a ton.
Coal costs SIS. 1t is plain that com
petition has proved or is proving
ruinous. Under such circumstances
an increased price, following legiti-
mate courses, cannot well be objected
to. There is, however, some objection
to the notion of forming a trust in
this industry; but this is probably
what we are coming to.
The New York San gives the full
outline of the scheme by which a con-
solidation of English and American
salt industries will without much
doubt be effected. Wellington R.
Burt, of Saginaw, Mich, and Charles
F. Burger, of Brooklyn, have been in
England some months ~perfecting the
scheme. They have returned to this
country with full power to complete
the arrangement for purchasing all the
largest salt industries in the United
States. Those in England are already
capitalized at 500, 600, 900. It is pro-
posed to put the American salt indus
tries in at a less sum, probably at SIS
600, 900 One-third of this has already
been subscribed by the owners of the
salt companies. If English experience
is any criterion, these shares will
prove exceedingly valuable. Ten
pound shares in the English company
have sold as high as &l9, and are now
Els. Probably the acquisition of
these enormous American properties
will give the English company a
IUFIU0E increase III value.
The company in this country will
be incorporated under the general
laws Of New York. It will be in
reality a gigantic salt company, owning
practically all the industries in this
country. Among those prominently
interested in this company in this
country are H. K. and F. B. Thurber,
of New York; Franklin Woodruff,
John D. Wing and William A. Haz
ard. They say that the price of salt
will not be perceptibly increased to
the consumer, but that the enormous
capital of the company will enable it
to produce much o cheaply. In a
single company there will be less loss
and waste from friction, and the
product will be placed everywhere,
with fewer changes through the hands
of middle men, each of whom expects
to take the same profit for handling.
1t is theoretically an evil state of
things when normo corporations
unite to control production and dis
tribution of the necessaries of life.
But it must be conceded that practi-
cally such a policy has some very i'm
portant advantages. Above every
thing else the formation of such enor-
nous corporations should impress
upon the statesman the necessity for
exercising over them sufficient control
to prevent their being made Cypress
i've to the public. They can and do
cheaper cost of production. If this
is done legitimately, it is a public
benefit, and the law should interpose
to prevent it's being done in any other
than legitimate ways. What the in
ventor can wrest from the forces of
nature is all right. When the corpo-
ration relies upon the oppression of its
human operatives it must have 8 care.
A corporation mas in some ways
greater powers than an individual can
but by that fact it has also
greater responsibilities to the public.
And, finally, whatever invention does
to cheaper cost of production must
not wholly to the inventor, nor
yet to the corporation employing him,
but to the general public. The world
cannot afford to be cheated out of its
share in the lessened price of the
necessaries and luxuries that it buys.
American Cuztavator.
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