Sharp County record., 1891-02-12
ANOTHER TARIFF TRUST,

Trust in order to Enjoy Their Tariff Spoiis
@-McKjnleyism the Breeder of Trusts.
The Boston Commercial Bulletin. a
high tariff organ, prints the following
piece of news:
large number of soap manufacturers in
fniladelphla, Pa, have organized branch
OF the National Soap Manufacturers Associ.
alton. NJ NJ Eavenson was elected presl.
deht Peter Day vice president and William
Hamilton secretary and treasurer. The ter.
fltory covered b. the new branch was fixed
as Pennsylvania, east of the Alleghenips
New jersey west of the New York Associa.
tion's district and the States of Delaware
and Maryland
The association here referred to is
what is known as the soap trust.
The soap makers are but another of
the vast number of industries which
are making haste to form trusts in or.
der to get rid Of competition" and en-
ter into the full enjoyment of the spoils
which the tariff makes possible. The
Mckinley duty on CASTLE soap is IL
cents per pound, on fancy and toilet
soaps Is cents per pound, and on all
other kinds it is 20 per cent. ad valorem.
Some prominent Republicans teach
the doctrine that in cases where COM
binations are formed for checking com
petition or for raising prices the pro-
tecting duty should be revised in order
to invite competition from abroad.
This is the doctrine heard only from
the stump; it never appears in practical
form on the floors of Congress. The
Republican leaders wilfully shut their
eyes to the fact that in every depart
ment of industry trusts are springing
up, and that this pernicious ter r.dencv
toward consolidation has never been
more active than during the past six
months. Trusts were sprouting up
rapidly even while the Mckinley bill
was still under discussion; but since the
passage of this bill, with all its Jobs
and deals, the trust-making industry
has leaped forward with unexampled
vigor Trusts come so rapidly that it is
scarcely possible to keep a record of
them.
Some Republican journals are fearful
lest these trusts will Undermine the
%Hole protective system" But these
Journals are clearly not in harmony
with the spirit and purposes of the Nc.
Kinleyites. The purpose of the MclLin-
ley law was to raise prices and thus
give the manufacturers higher profits.
If this was not the purpose of tho law,
then there should have been no
object in passing it; and Republican
leaders, like Mckinley himself, were
doing very inconsistent and needless
thing when they wer up and down the
country in the recent campaign making
speeches against cheapness. McKin.
ley himself said in his speech on his bill
last May in the House of Representa-
tives: "We want no return to chrap
times in our own country" and he
argued that where merchandise is
cheapest men are poorest"
1t being thus sound Republican loc.
trinc that cheapness is bad and deariess
is to be preferred, how can Republican
newspapers and statesmen consistently
lift up their voices against trusts?
Major Mckinley says that cheap
country sis not the kind our fathers
builded. Furthermore, it is not the
kind their sons mean to maintain"
Now trusts are the most potent
agencies imaginable for realizing the
ideal here set forth by Mckinley; and
ii that ideal of dear country be ac-
cepted by the Republicans it is folly
for them to denounce trusts. The presi-
dent of the sugar trust takes this view.
He says: "The great cry Of one of the
great parties is for projections; that is,
they cry for itloudly during campaigns.
But when we proceed to give ourselves
some protection howl is raised. They
demand protection for the industries.
When an industry protects itself It is
said that it is illegal" The sugar trust
was making 20 per cent, on watored
capital when this was said; but what
good Republicans can object to thatf
The trust at any rate was u blessing to
the country in giving us sugar which
was neither "cheap" nor nasty"