Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-08-11

Sl.rI HSsrSesss2E capital they have
-EMsJI never been fore. Out
@--Ss.Ae ride the monied class
.=z.ts--z@ es little is known of
--= trusts, their working
methods, their
quotations on the stock market. The Stand
ard on Company has been the best known
for years, it is about the Oldest and
strongest, and a result of its propensity
to gobble up anything from a single oil well
to a million-dollar refinery. obtained a
I:otoriety not relished by the incorporators
Of the combine. The same words apply to
the sugar trust, with the exception that
their notoriety is a direct result of dabbling
in politics Outside of these two comblna-
tons very little is known of the methods or
titles of the many other combines.
1t is generally known that a trust is
formed for the purpose of controlling pro-
duction of certain articles. and II this pur-
pose is attained success is assured. The
ratio of success to failures is about one-half,
demonstrating that it is quite a different
matter to conceive q thing and to put it
into successful operation.
The very latest failure in the trust line
is the umbrella combine. Their first efforts
to control the output appeared to be sue
cessful, but their capital proving inadequate
they went to the wall with a rush. Another
trust failure that has proved boon to the
general reading public was that of the book
trust. One year ago the average price for
novel from the pen OF a reputable novelist
was fifty 10 seventy-five cents. that is,
bound IN paper. while today the same edi-
tions can be bought for ten cents. The more
costly bound books have al-o taken a great
drop, bat as this class Of reading matter is
generally copyrig hted, a standard price pre-
walls. At the book stalls one frequently
overhears remarks to the effect that IL can
rot be understood how books can be sold
SO low with profit resulting therefrom. Ii
is a wel-knCwn fact that one OF the pub
fishers controls a patent press that turns
out book, printed, pasted and bound. al
an average cost of not quite two cents.
What nice profit at ten cents. and what
huge Gle at fifty cents.
In converse ton with well-known stock
broker, whose office is located up on F
street, a reporter OF The Evening Star re-
Gently CLEANED considerable informa ton
about trusts and their methods and caDl-
talization- Among the long list of stocks
quoted daily, and published in The Star. are
u number Of trusts whose names hardly
convey to the uninformed the nature of the
combination quoted in the market. The
broker said:
The history of trusts is short, COMPARE
lively speaking, as prior to 1880 very few
of the combinations such as they are now
were known to those familiar with the
stock exchange bulletin boards and quota
tons The success of the larger combines
gave great boom to the idea OF controlling
production under enc head, and as a result
trusts became a great fad with would-be
Napoleons of finance. Millions We're made
and millions were lost. A. c. O., ID. and C.
F. C, A. 5. r., Cordage, National Lead,
Edison General, Chicago Gas and several
other abbreviated terms do not convey
much meaning TO the uninitiated. but they
have a world Of Interpretation TO the specu-
These "a lrao a
stocks. make up most of the list daily quoted
in The Stars financial column. and bulle-
tined on change and in the brokerage
offices and in the larger cities, through
the almost omnipresent ticker whose in
teiligible ticking winds out the quotations
that makes or unmakes mems fortunes
Ringing on margins.
The Great Sugar Trust.
about the best known Of all trusts at
the present time is the American Sugar
Refining Company, but few people are
aware of the immense amount Of money
wrapped up in the concern. This combine
is a New Jersey corporation, with an origi-
nal capital of $4,000 900, divided equally be-
tween the common and preferred stock
hci1ers. In January. 1S'2, an additional
$25,ebO,o00 in stock was voted, making the
capital of the trust SI5,00,100 This ad-
ditional s25,00.00O was voted TO buy I'D
sugar refineries. The stock is a great spec
ulaIlNe, beng SooU 10 D0y or sell anywhere
from - to 100, and many Washington peo-
pie VIII vouch for the correctness of this
statement. The great Havemeyer, the
Spreckels. the Franklin Sugar Company
and others are in the trust. which has a
tremendous grip on the sugar producing
business Of the country east of the Rocky
mountains.
Several good stories are told IN connec-
ton with the expenditure OF the S25.olOOG0
additional stock that was voted in 1892 In
which Mr. Claus Spreckels figures as the
bright particular star. For many years
back Mr.. SpreckelS has had a monopoly of
the Pacific coast, and all he asked of the
trust was that he be left alone. But the
trust felt strong, and invaded his territory
This aroused the strong Teutonic blood in
Mr.. Spreckels and he decided TO retaliate in
kind He came east, and, after purchasing
a site in Philadelphia, started 'he bali of
competition rolling. He not only built a
miiiicn-dofar plant, but prepared for a
long fight by persuading hundreds of Penn
sylvania farmers to so into the cultivation
of sugar beets, promising to take the entire
product at profitable figures. Many farm
ers stopped raising tobacco and went into
the sugar beet cultivation, and made money
at IL. too.
Seeing these prepare lions for a great
fight the trust decided upon compromises
but Mr.. Spreckels, seeing his great hold on
the trust decided TO make them pay for
inaugurating the fight His plant in Phila-
delphia cost. all told, about 81, 10000, and
to pacify the farmers around that city
would take another $50o000. The trust
proposed THAT they vacate the Pacific coast
and take the Philadelphia plant off Spreck-
els hands at s2,o00,Oo0. But Spreckels said
he was making money in the east and
would rather remain. But this proved to
be a big bluff. At any rate 1t went through
Six months later Spreckels was given pos
session of the Pacific coast and something
over 100000 to vacate the east He
moved. The history of the big sugar re-
fnery at Locust Point, near Baltimore. is
practically the same. A syndicate banded
together TO squeeze the sugar trust, and.
like the Nickel Plate deal, they yanked off
the pot.
The whisky Trust.
Another trust that is said to have dab
bled in politics and u hose financial strength
is almost equal to that OF the sugar COM
bine, is ID. G. F. or the Distilling and Cat
tie Feeding Company. This combine is a
western product, having their headquarters
in Peoria, ILL.,, the greatest whisky-produc-
ing region in the United States. The trust
controls the majority of the distillerles of
the country. The whisky trust the COM
mon name Of the trust, is a corporation or
ganized under the laws of Illinois. When
the present concern took form the distil-
leries, including the cattle sheds and the
liStilierS and fea7prs' frrtSf ,r-aro