Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-02-12
THE SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
FRESH TRUST" FooLlsANess.

has started out on the warpath after
trusts" 1t first attacked the sugar
concern, which Is not a trust at all but
corporation, doing business just as cor
poration in Vermont may happen to run
a sawmill. 1t is called the American
Sugar Refining company, and is attacked
by the committee as it is abused by the
wild-eyed newspapers for no reason I'M
der the sun but because it is large. 1t
manufactures and handles nearly all the
sugar used in this country. 1t is practi
cally monopoly. President Havemeyer
of the company gave some testimony
which sounded rather weak at first, but
finally he declared, in substance, that
his concern handled the most of the
sugar IN this part Of the world and had
right to, and that there was nothing to
prevent anybody from starting in bust
ness against it. He suggested, however,
that the advantages possessed by the
great concern tended to make 1t uphill
work for any competitor. The advan-
tages of Ecourse appear in buying the
Grafton at every step until the manufac-
tured product is delivered. Mr.. HAVEN
eyer suggested that the public got the
benefit of the most of this advantage, al
though the.company also made hand
some thing of it, and he was exactly
right. 1t the public did not get that
beneft-if the company "controlled"
the sugar market by putting the price
unreasonably high-other concerns
would begin the refining business at
once and the sugar monopoly be de-
, stroyed. That is to say, as the price of
maintaining its monopoly, the American
Sugar Refining company constantly
, sells its product to the public lower than
any small concern can possibly afford to-.
The trust" howl has been repeated
by unthinking newspapers until great
: many people have come to imagine that
there must be something in it-that the
: community does somehow suffer from
, the operation of monopolles and that
@ there is danger of dire mischief from
them in time to come. But it is all a
, mistake. TO illustrate the operation of
o monopoles let us take a familiar in
stance, which well illustrates great
@ class of the dreadful things: When this
+ country was new all grass was cut with
t scythes, and all scythes were made by
tedious Job to hammer out one of the
a blades by hand and it was necessarily
relatively rough when finished, and the
= price was, let us say, 81. So it went
n until early in the century when little
a scythe factories were established here
It and there, with triphammers and Other
d appliances. Machinery and the division
s. of labor had the inevitable result, anC
9 scythes better than the blacksmith coulC
d possibly make were turned out for, say
% $l.50. The blacksmith turned his at
4 tention to other matter and eacf
. scythe factory instantaneously estab
" lished local monopoly, but nobody wa
y frightened. Upon the other hand, every
70 body rejoiced over the better and cheap
,. er scythes. Then machinery was i'm
y proved, competition between factorie
I. came in, and finally the best possibl
10 scythe was sold for 81. So it went un
n til about the middle of the century, ant
le then came the moving machine. Their
4, were, say, half a dozen kinds of ma
W chimes of nearly equal excellence, ant
n. each had a monopoly of certain sor
At because of patents. They sold for abou
ID 500. The machines came into use NOR
10 and more and after awhile the patent
r expired, construction became cheape
G. and good machines could be bought TO
10 $50 Then lcame tremendous compet
- ton between the factories, the cost @
10 selling maintaining drummers and tn
a. like-Decame enormous, and the leadin
10 companies found themselves actual
~ losing money. Then the managers pu
4. their heads together and organized
m trust They, in effect, divided tn
ID territory and reduced the cost of car
40 wasting enormously. They united i
buying material and In all operation
es where anything could be gained, an
SdNtu GlOlluO sums III llldA way @AuN
p. finally, they reduced the price OF ms
IN chine to $50. This gave a small maj
y gin of profit, but it increased the sale
y, so that the small profits were multiple
Nv Into something handsome. But in tn
o. end farmers had to deal with a mown
I'd machine trust. There is no doubt abou
ne that, because the combination undersell
N all competitors and drives them out c
a existence. No manufacturer can poss
IN bly, stand against them.
err 1t is not true that precisely this thin
to has happened in respect to scythes an
l 10 moving machines, but it is true this
he substantially this thing has come, an
what is true of the scythe is also true {