Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1892-09-08
SECOND THREAD.
How Competition Kills Protection
and Ill q Trust Kills Competition


How Competition Kills Protection
and til q Trust Kills Competition
Turn to the Tariff law. The duty is
a double one. 1t is "A cents per pound
and so per cent. ad valorem. The "A
cents is called the compensatory duty.
1t is to compensate tue manufacturer
for the money he is supposed to pay to
the farmer.
Congress places the collection of both
the 50 per cent. intended for the mill
owner and the A cents per pound i'll
tended for the farmer exclusively in
the hands of the Wooden Manufacture
er's Trust, and it leaves the Trust ell
tirely free to pay the farmer or not to
pay the farmer.
\ duty by itself protects only the
infant industry. 1t cannot protect an
industry that even partially supplies
the demand. The active, open compe-
tition OF one firm in any industry wipes
out the tariff protection; destroys it
utterly and completely. There can be
no Protection with Competition, and
no tariff duty levied on any article pro-
duced in this country by even 10000
men is or can he levied for protection.
1t must be levied to deceive and de-
Jude them into voting for the real pro-
lection of
L. Infant Industries, or
2. Industries governed by Trusts,
where there is no competition.
We have only very few infant
industries. The tin-plate industry now
aborning is the youngest. All our tin
plate now is imported, and the Ameri-
can market price of the foreign to the
American consumer must be the orig
inal cost and the duty. So long as our
tin-plate mills make only a little, not
enough to supply the market OF affect
the market prices, the duty will pro-
tect those engaged in it. But the
moment that our tin-plate men make
enough to supply even a section Of the
market, they will begin to compete
with one another for the profits from
that section-and the competition of
even one firm will destroy every parti-
Gle of Protection that any tariff can
give. Then the Tin-plate Trust will
be formed, a selling price agreed upon,
and competition killed. The Trust
restores the Protection by destroy
ing the Competition. Competition de-
stroys Protection; the Trust in turn
destroys Competition.
There are not six protected indus
tries or fifty firms in the United States
protected by tariff duty alone. There
are over four hundred and fifty indus
tries and 1880 firms protected By
Trusts and the tariff combined. If
any Of these Trusts should break. the
price Of its products would drop here
to the European level-perhaps below.
For twelve years the twenty-one max.
ers of steel rails maintained an un-
broken Trust and kept the price SIS
above the foreign quotation without
the duty. Then the market price here
fell to SIT above the foreign price, and
it was known instantly that one Of
their number had broken faith With.
in a week the market price here
dropped below the foreign price. The
Protection was destroyed by the Com.
petition the moment the Trust broke
AS Mr.. Blaine said, ''Trusts are
mainly private affairs Very few
Trusts are chartered Or incorporated
because so long as the Trust remains !;
s.private affair" it is not amenable tc
law. It is the inalienable right OIL
every American to form as many prl
yate Trusts as he pleases, and it is not
within the power of the Congress OF
the Legislature to invade that right
The citizen cannot surrender that
right, or give it away, OF delegate it
1t is his birthright. No government
can legislate concerning any Trust un
less the Trust is incorporated to sci
its shares to the general public to spec
ulate in its privileges, as the Sugar
Trust was.
The forty-nine protected sugar re
fners have had private Trust fol
twenty years. Seven of them incor
porated the North River Company
putting in for its capital only theil
tariff-given power to steal under {
Trnst which they said was worth $50.