Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-01-10
FRIDAY MORNING. JAN. 10, 1890.
A TRUST BEFORE THE VIRGINIA
L EIGLSI. A TIIIRE

Ing IN IL all Tile uldC1lIuoTy lOI SlSdlltlt
trust. 1t was an act to incorporate the
American Tobacco Company and asked fol
a charter to extend through a term of fifty
years. Its second and third sections read
as follows:
3. The capital stock of the company shall
be one million of dollars, and may be increas
ed at the pleasure of its stockholders, and
may he issued in payment and as full pait
stock for real OF personal property, OF fol
cash or other valuable consideration in sucl
classes, in such form, upon such conditions
and with such voting power and of such pal
value as may be prescribed by the ordinances
bylaws and regulations of the company.
3. The company shall have the right to
borrow money, to issue bonds and secure the
same by mortgage OF deed OF trust on its COZ
porate property and franchise; and also the
right to purchase, acquire and hold the stock
and bonds of other corporations, foreign and
domestic, and to vote upon and to dispose
of the same, and to pay therefor in its stock,
as herein before provided by section OF this
act.
Except the trainers had written the title
@'An act to incorporate the American To-
bacco Trust,'' it is hard to see how the
object of the bill could have been made
palmer 1t appears that after it had pass
ed, but before it had been signed by Gov.
Lee, the country members from the tobacco
region smelt rat, and an effort was made
10y the legislature to get the bill back before
it received the signature Of the. Governor
The legislative messenger arrived too late.
A resolution was then offered in the House
to repeal the charter of the American
Tobacco Company. All the facts that had
come out since its passage pointed to the
certainty that it was backing a great trust
company with a Virginia charter. When
the attempt began for repeal of the char
ter the friends of the American Tobacco
Company hustled off to the New Jersey
legislature and got it chartered there. The
trust combination includes the great Gig
arctic establishments of Allen q Ginter, OF
Richmond; those Of Duke, in Durham, n.
c., and New Y ork city; Kinney Brothers.
of Richmond and New York: Kimball, OF
Rochester, N. Y; Goodwin, of New York
and Bonsack's Cigarette Machine W oTks
whose headquarters are in Lynchburg.
This trust seems to have been handled
very gently in Richmond, where the great
factories of Allen & Ginter are public
blessing in tie way of giving work to employ,
ees and trade to many of it's merchants. In
deed it is reported in some quarters that
had it not been for the threatened repeal By
the Virginia legislature, the headquarters
of the great tobacco buying American com
pany would have been established in Rich
mond, but now will be moved to the North.
The feeling seems to be that, however to be
condemned, and justly condemned, Trusts
may be. Richmond could tolerate one if its
headquarters were there and its buying
done there.
With that view Of the question the mem
beers of the legislature who represent the
producing regions have nothing to do, but
with the formation Of a gigantic combina
ton which will have it in it's power to fix
the price of the sort Of tobacco it uses, they
have a good deal to do. Such combina-
ton as that named above could easily dc
that for Virginia, OF drive the Virginiato
bacco raiser elsewhere for market Ii
would buy no more tobacco than it does to-
day, but it would fix the price of what it
did buy.
In wheat growing country our readers
can understand the matter clearly by apply.
ing it to their own case. Suppose the mil
lers and commission merchants were tic
form combine. They would fix the price
Of wheat at what they chose to pay. The
Augusta farmer finding he could not get 2
fair price in Staunton, OF from the millers.
would look to the great cities. He would
try there, and find that the commission
and he would be helpless. Middlemen are
much-abused institution, but it is they who
in fact, keep up the competition that gives
better prices to the producer. When they
are put out of the way by the Trust, and
the producer deals directly with that Trust
he receives just what it chooses to pay and
no more. The Trust does not buy bushel
more of wheat, but it buys it at what
prices it chooses.
The Trust is not a ''business'' opera.
tion. The very history, as We get it from
the Richmond papers in the formation OF
this American Tobacco Company proves
it. The Allen & Ginter firm were and are
making money in immense quantities, are
a public benefit to the city they are located
in, and everything is going well with them
But the formation of this trust begun at
the North had captured the Bonsack Com
pany of Virginia, from which the Allen &
Ginter firm hire the right to use their pat
ented machinery, and thus this firm is driv.
Ell into the combine. 1t is the old story
that has been rehearsed over and over again
since the formation of Trusts begun and the
eyes of greedy capitalists were fixed on
paying properties.
We trust the country members of the leg
islature will not be frightened by the threat.
ened removal of the great cigarette works
from Virginia Oh any other idle threats
If it is more profitable to locate machinery
at a distance from the raw material that if
is to operate it in it's fields, and transpor
tation does not enter into the cost of man
nfacture, then the cigarette factory will
remove North in any event. If these
things are not SO, then it will, il
conducted by sensible business men
as we presume it is, remain where it is.
Money does not throw itself aWay fo,
spite.
Something else those country members
should learn from this episode. The broad
righ-s granted by many of the charters now
being given out are fully equal to holding {
trust under their wings, and those wings
should be clipped. Some Of the charter,
now being granted by the Legislature to ds