The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-11
THE IMPUDENT RORBERs

Of all the trusts that have been
spawned in Republican paternalism
we doubt if there is a more impudent
and arrogant one than the wire nail
trust. Corporations have no souls, and
this one is without bowels OF mercy
The misery of the panic year tailed to
touch it. In fact it was while industry
was staggering under that blow that
it was formed. 1t pursued the usual
method of cajoling, oribing or cocrc-
ing factories into agreement with it,
AS soon as formed in sufficient strength
it began to exploit the convalescing in
dustries by raising the price of it's
creased the price of wire nails 22S per
cent. While it was selling nails to
the home trade at about 81 80, it was
exporting them at $140
A suit, pending in Indiana before
Judge Baker, of the federal court, il
Illustrates the high-handed methods en-
ployed by this trust in establishing
its mastery of the market 1t and
its members were sued by a manu-
facturer Of wire nails in Cincinnati,
who alleged that he had a contract
with the makers of a wire nail ma
chine for forty-two machines, but that
the trust, by the use of threats and
money, induced the maker to refuse to
fill the order, thereby preventing the
complainant from carrying out his con-
tracts or continuing his business In
this way, the complaint AYERS, the
trust has forced others into it's COM
bine and freezes OUT those who re-
fuse to join it, One has to ask him
Sell IL this is really republic and if
men in it are free, as he reads with
this Of the astounding audacity of the
trust which comes into court and ad-
mits that the allegations Of the COM
plant are true, but pleads that the
court has no Jurisdiction to try and
decide the cause. Whether the plea
was to the Jurisdiction Of the court
over the person or the subject matter
is immaterial The fact that such
trade conditions exist is the vital mat
ter
during the campaign Eastern papers
published letters from Western bust
ness men explaining the political con-
dltlons in their localities and why
there was such an apparent strength of
the silver movement there. One of
these said that the farmers were loud
in their complaints of the nail trust
that had raised prices 200 per cent. and
added that 1t was precisely these
! trusts that were breeding anarchists.
But short time before his untimelv
death William E. Russell warned an
audience of manufacturers that they
We're sowing the wind and were sure
to reap the whirlwind" Even
protect1onists boast of the alb
solute freedom of trade that exists
within the boundaries Of the Union.
but when such conditions exist as this
suit reveals and others have shown.
how hollow is such a boast
1t is reassuring to read the emphatic
language with which Judge Baker
overruled the plea sThe trust de-
scribed," he said, sis an unlawful
combination and conspiracy to raise
the price Of goods and interfere with
the manufacture Of wire nails, and is
in direct violation of an act of con-
gress, Of good morals and the public
veal" One Of the reflections that robs
the victory of sound money of some of
Its satisfaction is the thought of the
probable restoration of the policy that
spawned the trusts.