Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-07-30
TARIFFS AND TRUSTS.
PROTECTION NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR
THE CREATION OF MONOPOLlES.

If Trusts Are to Exist at All 1t Is Bet
ter That They Should BE In Our Own
Country and Subject to Our Laws-The
MonopoIies in UntariGTed Articles.
The tendency of the age is for men to
combine where they see profit. The
Standard Oil trust is a gigantic aggre-
CATION of capital. Yet what has that to
do with the tariff? The Western Union
telegraph monopoly, the insurance COM
bination, the trust lately formed by the
express companies-how are they influ-
enced by Protection? The tariff, far
from creating the conditions favorable
to the organization of trusts, has been
the means by which many of them have
been destroyed, and this will be clearer
when we consider the circumstances
under which it is most likely that trust
will be formed. When any class of
commodities or facilities for performing
services are capable of being concen-
trated in the hands of a few men,
whether because of natural or artificial
ly created conditions. there is a tempta-
ton to combine
Under Free-trade the trust would be
supreme. For then we would be com
pletely at the mercy of Great Britain
for our supply of many articles, and
this condition would be realized: Before
large supply of a commodity could
reach us it would have to be collected
in few seaports, there to pass through
the hands of few exporters, who find
trust the most convenient means of
raising the export price TO foreign con-
sumers. And this is just what has
actually taken place again and again, so
that there is no country in the world
that contains more trusts, more obnox-
ious monopolies than Great Britain, the
home of the economic heresy of Free
trade. AS Manager Cattarns. of the
General Steam Navigation company, the
largest steamship company in Great
Britain, said, when testifying before the
British royal commission in 1866:
"Of course we all have freight rings.
They can do more than individual ship
owners can do to meet foreign compe-
tition, and they do So These combina-
tions are natural and advantageous, and
they exist not only in the shipping trade,
but in every other, and am sure that it
is only by such combinations and their
accumulation of resources that they are
able comparatively to meet foreign COM
petition"
In other words, the trust is regarded as
the natural result and product of Free
trade, especially for the purpose of break
ing down foreign competition What,
on the contrary, has been the condition
in this country? Only few days ago the
New York Commercial Bulletin, itself a
stanch Free-trade paper, speaking of the
steel beam combination, said;
The collapse of this combination
illustrates very clearly the danger
which every such combination has
to confront and before which nearly
every one of them goes down. The
exceptional profits realized are a pow
erful inducement to other manufac-
turers and capitalists to engage in tho
same business. The more obstinate and
compact the combination shows itself in
maintaining prices the more outsiders
are convinced that they can afford to en-
gage in competition with it. The only
way to keep such a combination alive by
whatever name it may be called or under
whatever legal forms it may be organ
lied, is to supply product to the pdblic
at such price as to discourage all com
petition. The trusts or corporations
which have consistently done this have
prospered. All others have been prepar-
ing disaster for themselves, though in
many cases it has long been deferred"
Can better testimony be presented:
Trusts flourish under Free-trade, die un-
der Protection.
But there is another aspect to this ques
ton. If the production of a given com
modify is to be controlled by trust at
all, is 1t not better that the trust should
be In this country, subject to the regula.
ton and punishment of our laws, than in
England or some other country where we
cannot reach it? At least, if it is here,
we can attack it, we can destroy it; if it
is England we are helpless and at its
mercy?
Protection offers no inducement to
trusts, but if they are formed we can con-
troll them. Free-trade offers every in
ducement to trusts, and when they are
formed puts them beyond our reach.
Which system will the people prefer?