St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-09-15

ruled
Business of the Trust.
History as well as logic demonstrates
that such are the stimulating and blight
ing effects-the inevitable result of the
protective system. 1t induces the fever
of speculation. the paralysis of industry,
the prostrdtiOn of labor.
A larger and expanding market is the
crying need of all our industries. The
n thing necessary to develop those
which exist, to resurrect those which
have persisted. to create those which
should exist, to give good wages and
constant employment to our working
men is an opportunity and al ability TO
sell their products whenever there is a
people willing to purchase and ready to
trade.
The home markell is overStocked. Our
industries are cramped for room. The
developed infant is too big for his
cradle. Like the boy in his last years
pants, either he must shrink, or they
must expand.
The greatest of political barometers,
the imitatOr of Sir Robert Peel, but
without PEEPS conscience or patriotism,
is at this moment in full accord with
these sentiments.
Mr.. Blaine, with the historians and
the prophets wisdom, tells us:
81 wish TO declare the opinion. that
the United States has reached the point
where n of its highest duties is to ell
large the area of its foreign trade. I'm
der the beneficent policy of protection
we have developed a volume of manu-
features which, in many departments,
overruns the demands of the home mar
lot Tn fhn Gold 0I rror11fr1r N with
the immense propulsion given to it by
more than produce breadStuffS and
provisions for our own people; nor
would it be
An Ambitious Destiny
for so great a country as ours to manu-
facture only what we can consume, or
to produce only what we can eat. We
are already in many fabrics and many
products far beyond that. and our great
demand is for expansion. l mean eX-
pansion with countries where we can
find profitable exchanges"
But the trust. that marvellous master
piece of legal ingenuity. like the float
iHg ice rocks of the ocean,, comes tower
ing through the fogs of protection, the
greatest of all the dangers which i'm
peril the nations prosperity.
A trust is a consolidation of the lead
ing producers of any commodity for the
purpose of limiting the quantity of pro-
duct. fixing its price in the market, and
freezing out and destroying every com-
petitor.
1t differs from the spool" and "com-
blne" in this. that it is just as con-
scienceless and a great deal more pow
arfn1 II iC a consolidation md not .,
mere combination OF monopolists.
Without a protecting tariff the trust
could not exist. The tariff gives to it
that contracted market and freedom
from the worlds competition so essen
tial to its vitality.
So selfish and so extOrtionate have
been these monopolists, so remorse-
lessly have they plundered the people,
that there has sprung up in this pro-
tected hotbed of America an unWhole-
some crop of ~milliOnaireS. poisoning the
social, the business and the political
life of our people.
The estimated aggregate wealth of
the United States is SIS. 0O0, 600, 600. If
equally distributed among the 13,00O,-
600 families who comprise pOpula-
ton each family would be worth $1,000.
1t is no equally distributed. So rapid
has been the
Concentration of Riches
in a few individuals that to-day 40, 900
persons own one-half of the total wealth
of the nation. We have more and larger
millionaires than has England. The
richest of the ROthschildS died recently,
leaving an estate of ST. 0 600. We
have at least 100 persons whose wealth
exceeds his. England's greatest mill
ionaire, the Duke of Winchester, is re-
puted to be worth $50, 900, 900. In the
November Forum you will find the
names of Americans who are worth
twice as much, and of sixteen whose
wealth equals OF exceeds his.
In England One-thirtietli of her peO-
pie W twO-thirdS of her wealth. In
America o-ne-seventieth of our people
own two-thirds of our entire wealth.
While. during the past thirty years,
there has been a similar increase in the
aggregate, there has not been a like
distribution of wealth in the two ma
tions. Here there has been a rapid in
crease in the numbers and in the riches
of the very rich; there, on the contrary,
it is the common people who have
grown rich. Here concentration in a
few, there distribution among the many
lluS Accompanied III 1dDlQ CfClODlllGI
of natiCnal wealth.
Before the war you would count Our
m%illiOnaireS upon your finger-tipS: to-
day, according to the statistics l quote,
the accuracy of which has never been
questioned, there are in the United
States $3.50 men who are each worth
more than 81, $780, 900.
Nov upon what meat
Do these, our Caesars, feed
That they have grown so create"
Very few have inherited their wealth
some have been in luck and are rich by
accident; others, profiting by the
bonuses, subsidies and rascalIties OF
our railroad legislation and manage
ment. have thus amaSsed a fortune;
but the largest number have gained
their millions by means of that special
privilege of controlling the markets,
taxing the public for
Their Private Profit,
which the tariff has given to them, just
as Elizabeth, by regal patent, bestowed
it upon the favorites of her court.
The object of a protective tariff is tt
enable its beneficiary to sell his goods
to his W cOuntrymen for more thar
they are, in fact, worth-for more thar
he could otherwise get for them. Un.
less 1t does this it affords him no pro
lection, no matter how high the rate Of
duty may be. For example, a tax of ST.
per ton ON steel rails enabled Andrew
Carnegie for years to, ana until recently
he did, sell his rails to American rail
ways for nearly SIT per ton more thar
foreign rails could be laid down in New
York, duty unpaid. The consequence
is that Mr. Carnegie. who, twenty-si1
| years ago, began business with less thai
$4,000 capital, is now reputed to bt
worth s55, C00, 600: and spends his sur
plus profits in princely contributions t
the campaign funds of the g. O. D., anC
his surplus time in writing contribu
tons for the magazines upon the sub
ject of .'Wealth," and the beneficienc,
of a system which so wisely takes car,
of the rich in order that the rich ma,
take care of the poor.
1t is difficult to comprehend the ey
tent of the taxes wrung from the pee
pie, and pocketed by
The Protected Industries
of u country. In the August number
of the Popular Science MONTH,
Edward Atkinson computes the extri
cost by reason of the tariff. of the irol
and steel used in this country in tn,