The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-18
CUT IN TYPEWRITERs.
Break ia Prices Expected to lie
Made by the Trust Before Many
Months.

Made by the Trust Before Many
Months.
Before the end of 1898 the s1OO type
writer will have gone the way of the
500 bicycle and have become as much
a memory as the 5000 sewing machine
of the '70s, says the Chicago Times
Herald
This, in the opinion of typewriter
manufacturers, dealers and selling
agents, is the handwriting on the trade
wall ahead of them, however much
they regret it. The typewriter trust
formed in April, 1893, but not thoroughly
organized until June of that year, is
finding very difficult the attempt to
maintain its $1G0 figures, so rigidly held
for the last four and one-half years.
The price is so high that it not only al
lows opposition concerns to live, but to
thrive and fatten as well. One of the
bad features of the thing from the
combination standpoint is that the old
machines Of the trust companies are
used as club with which to beat a
hole in the combinations trade. So sue
cessfully has this been done that the
yrewriter-using public has become &C
quainted with the fact that there are
many machines is good as the trust
makes and some even better
The opposition companies are making
a larger allowance for secondhand
machine of trust make than would be
allowed for it by the combination it
self. This amounts to cut in the
price Of the opposition machine and has
often served to put it in the place Of
one of the trust make. This had a bad
effect-from the combination stand
point, of cGurse-as the use Of the new
make often overcame the natural pre-
JUDGES of the user of the old machines
So rapidly are some of the opposition
machines winning public favor, and so
great is the increase in new machines,
that it is believed. both by the trusts
agents and their competitors, that
bold cut in prices to half the present
figures would kill off fully 50 per cent
of the opposition companies.
Many of the new companies, who are
financially strong, and who are there
fore in shape to reduce their prices,
have hesitated to do so in the fear
that the reduction would class their
comparatively unknown machine as a
low-grade or cheaply made. Many of
the new companies who are not so ia
yorably situated, and who are having a
hard time to secure recognition even
under the present conditions, would be
utterly wiped out.
AS the patents on all of the essential
improvements in the typewriter ran
out long since, 1t is now possible to
duplicate almost any machine In the
market-just as sewing machines of
all makes have been duplicated for
years. The matter having thus been
reduced to a question of factory cost.
the time has therefore arrived for a
bold stroke to gain the supremacy in
the market That the stroke will fall,
and very soon, is not doubted in type
writer circles. The actual factory cost
of the two makes most prominently
| before the public is less than S15-one
Of them, according to an ex-employe,
being made for less than $12. Allowing
even the most liberal margin for sell
ing. advertising and all other expenses,
| the buyer who pays $50 for any type
writer in the market is paying a very
respectable profit.
Though 1t is by no means certain
that the first sweeping and open cuts
will come from the trust, it is from
this direction that the trade most fears
it. 1t is known that the big combina-
| ton is heavily loaded with old and new
machines, and it is believed 1t would
like to- make way with the greater
number of the 106 diffefSnt typewriters
now made in this country.
A report which has been current for