Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1899-06-22
LOCKWOOD AND HAVE
MEYER.


The Industrial Commission now sit
ting in Washington, and of which our
esteemed fellow citizen, Thomas w.
Phillips, is President has been listening
to some interesting evidence of late.
Another of our esteemed fellow citi-
zens, L. NJ. Lockwood of Zelienople, oil
producer, testified before it last Satur
day, and as his special grievance is the
Standard Oil Co., he went into its his
tory and blamed the railroads with
building it up by giving it rebates.
IF you have got to be robbed, he ex-
claimed, 1T does not matter much
whether you are held up by Dick Tur-
pin with pistol or by John Rockefel-
Ter with railroad it is robbery all the
same.
He said that men who had carefully
analyzed the testimony taken before the
Hepburn committee estimated that in
16 months time the five trunk lines in
Pennsylvania had paid the Standard Oil
Company 81, ,00O,0 900 in rebates. The
railroads companies had, he said, COM
pletely ignored the orders of the Inter
State Commission to cease their dlscrlm-
ination in favor of the Standard Com
pany, resorting even to the system OF
false billing.
Speaking of the remedy for the evil
Mr. Lockwood said it is In public own
ership of the railroads and it is not to be
found in the courts. The courts are to
slow and expensive.
The railroads and the oil company
md n n
courts for 10 years, he said, until he
is ruined financially, and then go on
with their work, leaving their victim
stranded, As reward, the combines
elevate their instruments to higher
places politically Thus it is
that the belief of the common
people is gradually becoming fixed
that the great railroad combines
are gradually packing the Supreme
Courts with men in sympathy with their
monopolistic tendencies and who will
do their bidding. Thus the Interstate
Commerce law is rendered Ineffective.
IF the railroads can control the ap-
pointment of the Attorney General and
of Justices of the Supreme Court, what
do they care for the law?" the witness
asked.
1.-The only safe plan, said Mr.. Lock
wood. lis to take the railroads out OF
the hands of the corporations and place
them under control of the Government,
SO that every man can go to market as
cheaply as every other man" He con-
sidered all the railroads of the country
as practically one gigantic trust, and
asserted that they are in control of our
politics, contributing millions to elect
Legislators, Senators and Judges and to
punish those not willing to do their
bidding.
A few days before that the star wit
ness was Henry O. Havemeyer of New
York, President OF the American Sugar
Refining Co., the head of the combine,
who read carefully prepared statement
on trusts which began as follows:
The mother of all trusts is the Gus
toms tariff bill The existing bill and
the preceding one have been the occas-
ion of the formation of all the large
trusts with very few exceptions, mas
much as they provide for an inordinate
protection to all the interests of the
country-sugar refining excepted. Eco
nomic advantages incident to the con-
solIdation of large interests in the same
line of business are great incentive to
their formation, but these bear very
insignificant proportion to the advan-
tages granted in the way of protection
under the customs tariff. There proba-
bly, is not an industry that requires a
protection of more than 10 per cent. ad-
valdorem, and it is to obtain what is
provided over such percentage in the
tariff that leads to the formation of
what are commonly spoken of as trusts.
With protection to an industry not
exceeding 10 per cent. all menace to the
community from trusts would cease.
This 10 per cent would represent the
difference in cost of production, and like
wise act as protection against surplus
products of foreign countries being
dumped in our local markets, thereby
interfering with the regular and eco
nomic working of our industries. Any
advantages that might then accrue to
such combinations they would not be
damaged thereby, as any expansion of
price would be met by foreign competi-
tion and relief have said that sugar
was an exception. The rate of protec-
tion on sugar is of cent per pound,
which is about 81 per cent. ad valorem,
and is not the difference in the cost of
refining between this and foreign coun
tries The least it should have is s per
cent, or, in specific figures, per cent.
per pound. The sugar refining industry
of this country, no matter what form its
organization, is entitled to adequate pro-
lection. If any industry is. There are
at least 100, 900 persons dependent upon
it. What it pays or has paid to its
stockholders in the past represents moth
ing more than fair return on the ex
tent of the business.
THE United States tariff bill in as
sessing about $40 per ton duty on import
ed sugar, pays into the pockets of few
Louisianans on their annual crop, 250000
tons. $40, ,000.000 to the Hawaiian is
landers, probably represented by $50
foreigners, on their annual crop of $50
900 tons, 10000, 900; say 100000 tons
produced elsewhere in the United States
"a, 000, 000 Here you have $24, 900, 600
extracted from the people of the United
States for the sake of getting the reve-
nue. which $40 per ton on foreign sugar
provides. This is merely illustrative
OF the whole tariff and its effect upon
the people. In fact, the tariff bill
clutches the people by the throat, and
then the Governors and the Attorney
Generals of the several States take ac-
ton, not against the cause, but against
the machinery which the people employ
to rifle the public's pockets. There APP
pears to be in the public mind distinc
ton between robbery by an individual
and that by corporation. What is
commendable in an individual appears
to be dishonest in a corporation. |
maintain that it is immaterial to the
public in what form business is done
whether by an individual, firm corpora
ton or even trust. These are merely
forms of conducting business, or, in
other words, machinery for the opera
tion of business. 1t is the duty of the
government to see that under the tariff
laws they enact this machinery cannot
in its actions result to the detriment or
impoverishment OF. the public.
1t would have been very easy and
proper for the government to have put
a corresponding internal revenue tax on
sugar multaneously with the imposi-
tion of the customs duty, and have these
$24, 900, 900 which now 60 into the pock
cts of few individuals go into the
treasury for the benefit of the whole
people. If no expenses of the govern
ment needed to be provided for and pro-
lection to American industries was de-
sired, the imposition of 10 per cent ad
valorem on all manufactured products
would have settled the matter There
is every reason why, if revenue is desir
ed, that with duty on raw materials
of foreign production corresponding
internal revenue tax should be levied on
similar products, and the protection to
manufactures thereof limite to an ad-
ditional 10 per cent. l repeat that all
this agitation against trusts is AGAINST