Los Angeles herald., 1892-05-12
TRUSTS AND THE TARIFF.


bear any relation to each other. They
declare that trusts are not encouraged
by the operation Of tariff that pro-
hibits importation, and point with
an air of triumph to some exceptional
industry or interest that has been merged
into trust and yet is unprotected. That
may all be true, but it nevertheless does
not alter the fact that prohibitive
tariff cuts off a competition that would,
in nine cases out of ten, make it impos-
sible for successful trusts to be formed.
But the argument, that the prohibit
i've tariff does not encourage the forma-
ton of trusts, is unite nable on the face
of it is shown by the fact that since the
Mckinley bill has gone into operation
scarcely day passes in which great
combine" to obtain a monopoly of
some article is not organized. Indeed
it begins to look as if every indus
try in the country that can by
any possibility be turned into a
monopoly were about to succumb to the
rage for the formation of trusts. We
are confronted with trusts controlling
the food we eat, the clothes we wear,
the articles we use in our households
and the coffins in which we are buried.
The latter is one of the trusts that per-
haps does not owe its entire existence to
high tariff, but it is undoubtedly aided
in its complete effecti7eness by the high
duty upon some of the furnishings that
are indispensable to the undertaker's
business.
Amongst the five different trusts rep
resented yesterday as having been form
ed in the eastern states, we see that one
is combination with capital OF $6, ,OO0,-
600, which takes in all the trunk factor.
les in the United States, except one.
This trust could clearly not live and
work under fairly devised tariff sys-
tenn. The great coal combination re.
Gently formed by the Reading railroad
company, the object OF which is
to place all the Pennsylvania mines in
the hands Of trust that will control
their output, limiting the production
and increasing the price. could never
have been. successfully undertaken if
there were not duty on coal sufficient
to exclude the foreign article from the
eastern market. We are glad to see
that Governor Albeit is determined to
break up this outrageous conspiracy if
it can be successfully reached in the
courts.
There is one notable circumstance
about many of the extensive combina-
tions now being formed in this country,
and that is that English capitalist g
figure very largely in them. They buy
up the controlling interest in enter
prises, and then trust is formed which
brings into the combine" the great
bulk of the establishments producing
the same line of goods: and those that
refuse to go into the trust are
simply "froze" out or forced into
bankruptcy. The amazing extent to
which British syndicates are get
ting hold of industries in this
country involves problem which may
in the near future bring great deal of
trouble upon our people. A great pro-
portion of the money invested is un >
doubtedly drawn out of enterprises in
Great Britain that have been seriously
affected by the exclusion of our market
to their goods by the prohibitive tariff.
English capitalists have simply trans
ferred their capital from their own
country, where the tari If has affected its
profitable use in certain lines of enter
prises, and transferred it to the United
States, where it can be made to take
advantage of the monopolistic conditions
created by the Mckinley tariff.
We are not of those who would in any
manner discourage the investment of
foreign capital in the United States.
We believe that the more money we can
draw from abroad into American enter
prises the better. Such investments,
when they become colossal, as they have
of late years become, especially from
Great Britain. give us bond of fate
against the possibility of any future
rupture between the two coun-
tIlcss 0ub Wo lOOk lUiWdTQ 10
the time when these syndicate invest
ments, that are destined to multiply
the original figures many times over
through the aid Of the prohibitive tariff,
will weigh upon us oppressively,-to the
time when the interest on this vast
foreign capital many times compounded
will be exacted from the productive
labor OF this country, and place our
people in the position OF hewers OF
wood and drawers of water for foreign
capitalists. Whilst we will not be
fellahs in the Egyptian sense, yet there
will indeed be some analogy between
our case and theirs.
Whether we can regulate or control
trusts by law is still moot question
with the legal doctors. 1t would seem
that when combinations are made to in
terfere with the free course of trade and
for monopolistic purposes, there should
be remedy at common law. But this
much is certain. that whenever a pro.
hibitive tariff is imposed upon any
article, encouragement is given