The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-08-04
THE TAX ON HIDES.
New York World Says it Will Not
Help the Farmer

view 1OTk, aug fine WOF1Q says.
The hide trust expects to make some
thing handsome out of the new tariff law.
The duty of Is per cent on all hides i'm
ported is just to it's liking. The schedule
puts up the price of heavy sole leather a
little more than 2 cents a pound. This is
the leather worn by the workman, his
wife and children. They will have to
stand the increased cost of their shoes
and the profit will go not to the farmer,
in whose behalf the advocates of the new
tariff have had so much to say but to
the hide trust magnates.
The controlling spirits in the hide trust
are Philip d. Armour, G. F. Swift and
Nelson Morris. Swift is Nelson Morris
son-in-law. The same men run the Ma
tional Leather company. G. F. Swift is
the president and Edward Morris, Nelson
Morris son, vice president. For some
weeks past the National Leather COM
pany has been holding it's leather at 4
cent advance, whereas the actual advance
has been cents. Having control of the
cattle market, Armour, Swift and Morris,
as a matter of course control the hide
market also.
Their action in holding out for a A.
cent advance was in anticipation of the
passage of the tariff law with the Is per
cent duty on all hides imported. They
seem to have known just what was going
to happen. There. in fact, appears to
have been no doubt about it.
They thus had the advantage of the
other dealers in hides and leather, men
who might guess al what would happen,
but lacked the positive inside information.
The masses are to be the real sufferers
the working men, the farmers and their
families. When it is remembered that
the live stock in this country has valu-
alton of over 81, 300, 900 the vastness of
the deal engineered by the hide trust is
readily understood.
Hides are sold on the hoof. No matter
what the increase on hides may be the
farmer does not profit thereby. The aver
age weight of cow is 1900 pounds, where
as the hide averages in weight only
about sixty pounds. The farmer gets but
Sc ST. the hide trust gets all the rest.
Some butchers may profit few cents on
the pound if they are sharp and not
completely outwitted by the hide trust,
but the farmer looks for nothing else but
the price of the hide on the hoof, and he
gets nothing else.
The trust, having such a good thing on
it's hands, proceeds to make the very
most out of it. That is why it has been
holding out for Accent advance. 1t
knows that it can afford to wait until it's
customers are compelled to knuckle down
to it's demands. AS has been said, it is
the poor man who in the end will have
to foot the bill.
The wholesaler will not bear the loss.
He will put up his price to the retailer, or
he will sell him inferior goods at the same
figure formerly asked for a better class of
goods. The retailer, of course, will look
out for his own interests. The working
man will have to pay the difference if
there is a rise in price, put up with
inferior leather if the price remains I'M
changed.
Take a 50 shoe. Say that at present the
retailer gets it for S165. The manufactur-
er can no longer let him have the goods
at that figure. But the retailer insists
that he must get his 80 cents profit on the
shoes. The matter is settled by the man
ufacturer putting a poorer article into his
wares. He is satisfied and is the re-
taller, who still gets his So cents profit,
but the workingman's 81 shoe is not what
it was.
The United States Leather company,
better known the Leather Trust, al
though in the present transaction it has
played a secondary part, has neverthe-
less maintained sharp lookout on the
movements of the hide trust and kept
pace with it step by step. In the leather
trust are the Hoyt Brothers the Horizons,
the Ladews, the Proctor estate and the
Laphams Its combined capital is at
least $50, 900 900.
During the tariff bills consideration it
had it's own special bureau at Washing
ton, with typewriters and several law
yers 1t made determined effort to de-
feat the 10 per cent duty on all imported
hlues, but failed presumably because the
influence of the hide trust more
powerful. The leather trust was Joined |
in this fight by number of New York
leather merchants, all of whom contri- |
buted literally toward the expense fund. !
Ex-Mayor Shieren, among others, is said |
to have subscribed 81 900 to this fund.
The battle with the hide trust having |
been lost at Washington, the leather |
trust is fully prepared to face the result. |
1t will meet the Accent advance asked by /
the hide trust by a similar increase, and
as the poor man will pay the fiddler the
leather trust magnates will not sit up
much of nights grieving over the condi-
ton of the market.
Shoes are cheap at present, cheaper |
than they were before the leather trust |
was formed five years ago, but leaving /
out of consideration the deterioration in |
the material of which shoes are made, the !
question arises How long will these |
cheap prices prevail?" The answer to |
this is an easy one, viz: AS long as the |
hide trust chooses. 1t has all the cards |
in it's hands 1t is crediting it with too |
great a surplus of philanthropy to argue |
that it will play its hand for the interests |
of the masses and without trying to coin
every cent possible for it's own benefit out |
of the present situation.
Excursion to the Southwest.