Los Angeles herald., 1892-08-21
THE M'KINLRY BILL ANTITRUST COM.
BINRS.

Few people are aware OF the extent to
which the Mckinley tariff has robbed
the people in the past and is destined to
rob them in the future unless it shall
be repealed. 1t is one of the most con-
summate contrivances ever invented for
taking money out of the pockets of the
masses and placing it in those of the
favorites OF Republican legislation. 1t
has created innumerable trusts, and its
baneful effects are but in their initial
It's operation reminds one of nothing SO
much as device of the Middle Ages by
which man was inclosed in what looked
to be an apartment, but which ultimately
turned out to be tomb. Day by day
the walls contracted, until ultimately
the unhappy wretch found himself in
his coffin. The Mckinley bill has had,
upon private enterprise and individual
initiative, precisely this paralyzing
effect. 1t has meant death to small
enterprises, and has crushed them out
of existence. The trusts have not only
had the effect of enhancing prices to the
consumer, and this in cases where sol
emn promises had been made that
lower prices should follow their
formation, but they have alarm
ingly reduced the number of work
ingmen who were formerly en-
ployed in the industries which have
been gathered into their octopus grasp.
In cases where localities have been here
| tofore prosperous through the existence
of manufactures in their midst, these
| have been paid to close down in many
cases, with the inevitable result of thou
sands of persons thrown out of employ
ment and consequent ruin of communi-
ties. Everything is to give way to
supposed cheapness of manufacture,
under the specious plea that the con-
sumner is to be benefited. The bell rings
upon the new play, however, with ex-
tortion and suffering as the leading
features OF the drama. The laborer has
been got rid of and the consumer is
cinched.
In this review of the practical opera
ton of the trust creating and labor an
Initiating effects of the Mckinley tariff,
we aim neither at rhetoric nor exagger-
alton. Within three weeks after the
anthracite coal trust had come into be-
ing 10000 miners were thrown out of
employment in the Lehigh valley, Penn
sylvania district. When the trust was
formed it was loudly announced that it
would result in the cheapening of coal
to the consumer. We have been enabled
to see how this works. The effect of this
gigantic combine has already been to
add fifty cents ton to the cost OF an
thracite coal in New York City. There
| are ten million bushels of this coal con-
sumed annually within radius of ten
miles of the New York city hall. Thus,
| the net result OF this iniquitous combi-
nation thus far has been to limit the
output of coal, to cause the discharge of
sixty thousand miners and to lift cut of
the pockets of limited region-a terri
tory only ten miles square-an addi-
tional $5,000,000 year. 1t may be
claimed that as there is no duty on an
thracite coal the Mckinley bill can have
nothing to do with the anthracite trust.
But there is duty on bituminous coal
of seventy-five cents a ton, and it's sale
largely regulates the sale of the anthra-
cite article.
The Hon. John D. Warner has con-
| tributed to our current politics an ex-
ceedingly interesting paper, in which
he enumerates one hundred trusts that
are directly due to the Mckinley tariff.
Mr.. Warner is a member of congress
from New York and has had every oppor-
tunity of noting the effects of this
measure. Its evil effects upon labor
and prices are incalculable, ana there is
no telling where the evils resulting from
them will stop. The New York congress-
man sums their malign operation very
luminously, as follows:
s'(1.) The arbitrary crushing out of
Competition. (2.) Reduction in the
"supply of the product, SO as to secure
"the highest prices that will not destroy
"the demand; and, 49, the reduction
"of wages--both as consequence of
'the reduction Of the product and the
Consequent limited demand for labor,
sand OF the advantage which employers,
"leagued in trust-combine. enjoy in
dealing with workingmen dependent
''upon their earnings in the different
localities throughout the country,
"whence they and their families cannot
"move without hardship"
Readers of newspapers will recall the
fact that when Hon. James G.. Blaine
returned from his coaching trip over
Scotland with Mr.. Andrew Carnegie, he
said that trusts "were largely private
affairs" Their growth to upwards of
one hundred since the passage of the
Mckinley bill would seem to impart to
them quasi public character, to say the
least. They are growing with a
rapidity that is calculated to ap-
pail an intelligent man who wishes well
to his country. The accumulation of
wealth in few hands through these dew
ilish agencies promises to exceed any
thing ever known in the history of man
kind. Already in the United States we
have been treated to the piling up Of
fortunes SO colossal that in the compari-
son Midas would almost seem a poor
| ard 4bn