Middletown transcript., 1892-08-25
Wall Paper Trust. Tarif. % per

Wall Paper Trust. Tariff, % per
cent.
Watch Trusts. Tariff, 25 per cent.
Wheel Trust. Tariff, 45 per cent.
Raised to this rate by Mckinley.
Whip Trust. Tariff, leather whips,
35 per cent cloth. so per cent.
Window Glass Trust. Tariff, 68 10
132 per cent.
Wire Trusts. Tariff, lin generaD
45 to go per cent. and above.
Wood Screw Trust. Tariff, from 5
cents per pound on screws more than
two inches in length to IA cents per
pound on those one-half inch or less
in length.
Wool Hat Trust. Tariff, 66 to 112
per cent. and above. Having been in
creased by Mckinley.
Wrapping Paper Trust. Tariff, 25
per cent.
Yellow Pine Trust. Tariff, from 5
to 26 per cent.
Does any farmer or farm-worker
alive believe that any association Of
men was ever formed or that any
number of manufacturers, merchants
or producers ever combined for the
sole purpose-or for any such pur-
pose-of hammering the prices down,
SO that the farmer and farm-workers
might procure those commodities
which they are compelled to buy for
less money than they formerly paid
for thems / do not believe that there
is enc that is SO insane.
That these trusts have been formed
to hammer higher prices out of these
farmers and farm-workers is too
apparent to need discussion. Many
of them have also another object, viz:
to hammer down the prices Of these
commodities which the farmer pro-
duces. Notably is this the case with
the Sugar Trust. That great Trust !
was organized in 1887, twenty Of the
leading sugar refneries of the country
forming it. At once the price of
refined sugar was advanced abnor.
mally, but raws were depressed in
price slightly. This TrusbiH one year
advanced the difference between raw
>
and refined sugar from .685 to 1.242
cents. The Trust produced in 1888
about seven million barrels Of sugar.
and by the mere force of the Trust
alone was able to hammer nearly
fifteen million dollars more out Of the
pockets Of sugar consumers than they
could otherwise have done had the
consumers been free to buy their
sugar frpm whom they would; and at
the same time that they were hammer.
ing these excessive prices from the
pockets of the consumers they appear
ed to have been able to hammer down
the price for which they bought the
raw sugar.
Last autumn a more perfect trust
was organized. And practically the
entire sugar business passed into the
HANDS of the great "Sugar Trust"
and with apparently the following
results
On December Sd, 1891, So per cent.
Centrifugal sugar STANDARD raw was
bought by the refncrs for 8 8.8 cents
per pound, while refined (granulated)
was sold for 4 cents per pound. By
ApriI 18Th. the Trust had hammered
an additional 5-S of a cent per pound
out of the consumers, and had sue
ceeded into clubbing the sugar grow.
ers into selling them the same grade
Of raw sugar (96 per cent centrifugaD
for 8 8 cents per pound. To be
more explicit let US assume that the
refneries turned out the Same amount
Of sugar in April that was made by
them in December. They paid $500,
900 less to the growers for their April
supply than they did for their Decem-
ber supply, and they sold the products
of their refinery for April for S2000,-
900 more than they sold their Decem.
Der products for. This certainly is
clear case of hammering money out of
he pocket Of the farmer who grows
he sugar. for that portion Of refined
'ugar which he uses in his family,
assuming that he uses refined sugar.,
md clubbing him until he is COM
,elled to sell the raw sugar for less
han be would have sold it for, had he
lot been dubbed.
take sugar as an illustration be-
,ause it is commodity in such general
lse, and used in such large quantities.
But the same thing applies to cotton
eed oil, to linseed oil, to the wool
which grows on the sleeps back, and
wen to corn and wheat Although
re are such enormous producers in
his country of those two last-named
lrticles that the effect of Trusts upon
hem is very slight.