Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-03-31
A WHITE LEAD TRUST
ORGANIZED AFTER MUCH NEGOTl-
ALTON, BUT VERY EFFECTIVE.


The Price of Pig Lead Has Declined,
but That of the Painters Raw Mate
rial Has Advanced While Wages Have
Not.
The lead industry of the United States
is divided into three branches. The first
is devoted to the mining of the ore, the
second to the smelling and refining Of
the miners product and the third to the
manufacture of the pig lead into sheets,
pipe, shot and white lead and its kim
dred products. In the last two Of these
branches several distinct trusts have
more or less complete control.
The greater part of the lead ore mined
in the United States is smelted in Colo
RADIO, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. In
all ox these states there are local COM
binations among the smelters. But
though it has often been attempted, no
general combination has as yet been or
ganized. Every attempt, therefore, to
control production and pSices has ended
in failure, and however Strong the local
combines may be, they have little effect
upon the general market.
In 1890 the leading shot manufacturers
formed trust, which now has complete
control of this important lead product.
Similarly other minor lead products are
controlled by more or less strong COM
bines. But the leading trust in the lead
industries is the National Lead COM
pany, recently incorporated under the
laws of New Jersey. This company was
originally organized as a trust in Octo-
ber, 1887. Previous to that time the
corroders of lead in the leading cities
were organized as are the smelters and
refiners today.
Thus in New York six large establish
ments had united and secured a charter
under the name of the National Lead
and Oil company. But such local com
bines were not strong enough to sup.
press competition, and whenever at
tempts were made to raise prices buyers
went to other producing centers. At
this stage of affairs the National Lead
trust was formed. No attempt was
made, as has been the case with other
trusts, to keep matters secret. Nor did
those who planned it deny that their
object was to form trust. Their aim
was declared to be to decrease competi-
ton, introduce economics in production
and sale and thereby increase profits.
A trust or agreement was drawn up
providing that as soon as those who held
majority Of the stock of nine corpora
tinpc tbarni,, ,,,aD tiOpoJ c1,,,,11 c,-l,
scribe to the agreement and transfer
their stock to the trustees, the trust
agreement should go into effect. BY
1889 twenty companies had joined the
! trust. Since then eleven more have
been taken in or purchased outright
There are therefore thirty-one different
corporations in the trust. OF these,
four are smelling and refining plants and
three are linseed oil mills, the remaining
twenty-six being devoted to the manu-
facture of white lead and its related
! products.
The trust now controls all but about
per cent. of the annual product of
white lead, and it has Il smelling and re-
.ining capacity sufficient to supply near
ly all of its material. At the same time
its linseed oil mills produce more than
enough of oil to supply the amount used
by the trust in its business. Outside of
the trust there are in the United States
only two important plants engaged in
white lead production. The trust there
fore has absolute control of the white
lead business.
During the first year of its existence
the trust operated at a loss to the extent
of $9G2 600, according to the report OF
the trustees. This was due to the com
petition on the part of independent
works. Some Of the most important of
these joined the trust in 1899, and by
means of the higher prices thus made
possible, the trust made a profit of 81,
101 ,122. In 1890 the trust increased its
net profit to So 2,02s,552 This large in
crease in the profits made by the trust
was the direct result of the higher prices
Of white lead inaugurated by the trust
as compared with the prices existing be-
fore the trust secured its monopoly. The
average monthly prices of pig lead and
white lead in oil i'll New York have been
as follows since 1886:
NEW YORK PRICES OF PIG LEAD.