The morning call., 1892-07-11
TARIFF DUTIES AND TRUSTS.

The Examiner copies from the New York
World Senator Vests list Of one hundred
trusts and assures its readers that every
one Of the hundred is the result Of the tariff.
As the largest trusts In the country deal in
articles that are not protected il Is not easy
10 see how a removal Of duties on articles
that are protected would affect such trusts
as are not protected. The richest trust in
the world is the Standard Oil trust. The
raw material Of the Standard Oil trust is
petroleum. an unprotected product. The
Anthracite Coal trust is another big trust.
There is no duty on anthracite coal. The
cattle trust. better known perhaps as Ar
mour's beef monopoly, is not IN any way
assisted by tariff duties. Tie cattle Ar
mour has a monopoly Of are an American
product The sugar trust is protected by
q duty Of one-half of one cent a pound in
refined sugar. Foreign manufacturers have
raw material at the American price. They
have machinery, cheap labor and cheap
capital, and can send their refined sugar TO
the American market when the American
reGuer charges profit OF more than one-half
a cent a pound. There is a way to control
trusts without opening the American
market TO foreign goods. But this
way does not seem TO occur TO
our free-trade iliends. Their remedy
for the sugar trust is 10 admit foreign re-
fined sugar at cost or as much below it as
foreign refDers may agree to in order to
break I'D an American Industry When
the American sugar industry is broken up
foreign trusts would dictate the price Of
sugar.
The fact that there are in this country
more than one hundred trusts, most Of
n
the law making power TO the most dinicult
task presented to 1t since that body dealt
with the pro blem Of reconstruction. II is
not believed, however, that the trust prob
lem forms an exception to The rule that the
law may provide remedy for all evils
Honest and experienced legislators and in
depend ent Judges viii fn1 a way TO bring
trusts to terms without handing over our
industries to foreign countries. Some of
our trusts operate in articles that can be
purchased in this country at less than In
any other country. The Standard OIL trust
and the cattle trust are cases in point
O;bsr trusts operate in articles that can be
purchased abroad at less cost than at home
The trusts that operate in articles that can
be purchased most cheaply al home do not
need duties. Those which operate in articles
that can be produced more cheaply abroad
would be crippled by the removal Of duties
on competing foreign products. But n
national law for the control Of trade would
apply with equal force TO both. Would it
not be wiser policy to subject all trusts to
national laws than to kill two or three
trusts out Of a hundred by exposing them to
foreign competition? Free trade would not
hurt the Standard Oh trust. On the con-
trary, that trust would profit by free trade.
1t has raw material at lower cost than its
foreign competitors, and might extend its
sales of the finished article in foreign coun-
tries to which free trade would open cur
markets.
The charge has been made in the Senate
that the Standard OIL trust nominated Mr..
Cleveland at Chicago and shaped the reso-
lntions Of that convention. During the
debate in which this charge was made Sem
ator Vest admitted that Mr.. Whitney, who
poured so much oil on Democratic faction
and even tanned the TammanP tiger, had n
brother-in-law who has a valuable interes,
in the Standard Oil trust. 1t will be time 10
call IN the aid Of foreign manufacturers "a
put down American trusts when we have
tried ourselves to put them down and have
failed.