Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1896-09-30
MOTHER OF TRUSTS.
Free Trade, Not Protection, is the Parent
of Monopoly.
This example of needless excitement

This example of needless excitement
has just been received:
To the Editor of the Press-Sir: / submit
that in one instance Protection is complete
ly played out! 1t is in the one item coal!
A retail dealer told me yesterday that the
recent outrageous advances in coal are 0W-
ing to the banking firm OF Drexel, Morgan
& Co, who positively refused to undertake
the reorganization of Reading unless and
until the other coal companies agreed 10
advance the price of coal-just as has Deen
done! If you will look into this am sure
you will. in the interest of the people: al,
vocate the admission free of duty OF all
kinds of coal! And if not Why nyI, not;
Bloomfield, n. J., Sept. !.
There is no duty on anthracite COAL
the only kind of which the price has
been ''outrag eously advanced, the kind
of which our correspondent Is talking,
the kind which the Coal trust sells.
There never has been such duty. There
never will be such Il duty. The protec-
ton which this trust enjoys was con-
ferred by the Creator of the world when
He put anthracite coal in the Schuylklll
and Wyoming valleys of the state of
Pennsylvania, and i'll paying quantities
nowhere else, so far as man has yet dis
covered.
The anthracite Coal trust has abused
this natural protection. 1t has far eX-
ceeded the Slight advance which was
due and proper in view of years of ruin
Gus war among the separate coal bar
ons. But such abuse cannot be reached
by prosecutions under such statutes as
the antitrust law which the Republican
party passed when last in power and
which Il Democratic administration has
not sought once to enforce.
OF bituminous coal there has been no
increase in price. though it is alleged to
have tariff protection. That protection
is such that more than 100000 tons
worth nearly s., 100000, were imported in
eleven months of last year. while the con-
tract for supplying the New England
roads, which act conformity in this mat
ter, came near going to Nova Scotia. The
Wilson bill duty of 40 cents Il ton does
not equal the difference in cost of produc-
ton here and abroad. There has been no
profit III the mines, and very often no
work for the miners since that law went
into effect
But were the duty on bituminous coal
1000 per cent. no bituminouS trust could
Cypress the consumer as has the an
coal is found in every section of the
country. north. east. south and west. 1t
is mined in PENNSYLVANIA. 1t is mined
in Washington. 1t is mined in Tennes
see. 1t is mined in Colorado. Thus it
comes under the operation of the prin-
ciple of domestic competition, which has
foiled the schemes of every trust in this
country. not having. like anthracite coal
and coal oil, a natural protection to sup
port it. n bituminous coal trust would
meet the fate of the great trusts
cOrdage. whisky, tobacco and rubber
and the little trusts in umbrellas, win
dow shades and the like. which have
been ruined, or crippled or forced to dis
solve as the result of their attempts to
control the home market. Everyone of
the three great successful trusts of today
is a free-trade trust. Coal and oil have
W. h1
shown. The sugar trust fourishes sole
ly because the bounty which led be-
gun to foster the American sugar crop
was abolished by the Wilson law. Had
that bounty remained in operation. the
cultivation of the sugar beet would have
caused the erection of sugar refinery
i'll every Western town. TO restrict
the production of all these plants would
have been found as impossible as it
was found to restrict the production Of
the distilleries.
Free trade, not protection, is the moth
er of trusts.-New York Press.