The morning times., 1896-11-23
NAIL TRUST COLLAPSED
Once Powerful Organization Forced
to Throw Up Its Hands.
Great Tumble in Prices-Jobbers
at Liberty to Sell at Whatever
Figure They Please.

Chicago. Nov. ga morning paper says
,he great wire nail trust, when has levied
tribute Oh the people of the United States
and Canada since June l, 1895, has eel
iapSed and WIN cndcavor to wind up Its
affairs December /. sales agents rep
rescnting mills within the peel Were yes
terday scramblng to sell nails at Sl.tO
per keg in Chicago, which Is precisely 81
per keg below The trusts circular price,
and jobbers We're selling i'll lots of from
one to I.CO0 kegs from store at 81 per
kes. Before the end of the present
week the price Will undoubtedly be
down to 81 20 per keg, or within thirty
cents of the lowest price they ever so!d
here.
The trust has thrown up 10th hands, and
III a circular to the Iohters gives them
liberty to sell at any price they please
Troubles have multiplied on the trust ;
head very rapidly during the last eight
months. In that time the stream OF
dollars which poured into its Golfers dur
ing the early months OF its career had to
be used to buy up at round prices the "p-
position mills which sprang up on all sides,
as we'll as to meet "A multitude oil other "
penses Not the least OF these WAS Inc
maintenance of a Regular furce of 'nspec-
tors almost as large as the government
secret service to keep all the mcnterS Ui
the pool ''totiHg fair
For this and kindred purposes the t:ust
imposed a pool tax OF 81 80 per keg on
all the nails sold by its members and re-
hated to them the difference after TIE uh-
ieCts sought were accomplished. fund
of 81 800. 900 was returned To memiicrs
on the showing made four months ago, hut
since that ii ne the trusts officials and
committees have incurred liabilities Of
much more than this i'll their desperate
fight to keep the trust going. These la
bilities will have to he met hy the 'Hdi-
yidual mills composing the trust. and Il long
ptiiou "' iiti-''s...s. a. d. ~ ~ --'''it.
The advance # l5 cents per keg ordered
by the trust at its March meeting i'll this
city was the last act which markell The
trusts doom. This put the base Price
of nails at Pittsburg at S2.5o, which,
under the peculiar terms of its nail card,
meant that the lowest figure at which
any nails could he bought there was
$3.O5 per keg. This meant $40 in
Chicago and made the range OF CONNER
cial nails 70 western co nsum"rs 81 TO SO
per keg.
THIS resulted i'll an immense cur;ailment
of the demand and in turn forced the trust
to close up so per cent of its mills tnd
throw Its workmen out "f employment
i'll order to reduce the output to comply
with consumers needs
The entire sales of nails by tn. trust
mills uurin. WtEs Op.'ou
and in August but 5000 kegs, though the
output agreed urou for those months was
60 900 and 10000 kegs respectively The
March output reached $50 900 kegs
]. H. Parks of 6cS Sears building, BoS-
ion. was the originator of the pool and
was its commissioner. To him was
delegated the task OF holding the assOcia
ton together, ana for this service he col
lected cent per keg on each kcg of nails
sold i'll this country.
Beside Il large appropriation for "secrc-
taries' salaries and maintenance Of
the Inspection bSrean, tl.c association now
has on its hands a large collection of leases
of factories Which il closed up, also nu-
merous contracts with manufacturers III
nail neutrality-suspicious., who We're prevented
from selling 10 the trusts competitors.
Your policemen play u very IruniireTt
! part in politics." said the visitor.
..Oh. yes" replied Penn; they have Quit,