The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1899-05-19
TARIFF AND TRUSTS.
LATTER NOT A NATURAL ALLY
OF THE FORMER.
Some Deductions May Be Drawn from
the Present Era of Combines to Re-
duce the Cost of Production-Trusts
Increase Wages of Their Employees.

Commenting on the organization Of
trusts the GAINESVILLE Courier recently
said:
1.-THE Courier desires to protest
against the attempt, now beginning TO
be again apparent in some of the old
free trade organs, to attribute the In
crease of trusts to the fostering in
fuence of protection.
1--WE do not believe that tariff, high
or low, has anything to do with forma-
ton of trusts. The impulse toward the
combination of capital, as the Courier
pointed out some time since, does not
primarily spring from the relations OF
manufacturers to the public, but from
the internal economy of their W bus
mess affairs. Usually the movement to
establish a trust does not originate IN
a desire to increase prices, but in the
purpose to reduce expenses, and to i'm
prove the stability and certainty OF
business by charging the base. Cen
orally speaking, price increases are in
cidental and not buIdensOme to the
public"
It has been the contention OF free
traders from the founding OF the hrst
trust that protection is at the bottom
of trusts. This is as foolish as the
equally positive contention Of the free
traders that high duties on imported
goods prevent the sale of American
goods to foreign nations.
Experience has demonstrated the fai-
lacy of the latter contention as II
would the fallacy of the former. IL
every custom house were leveled to the
ground, and every port opened to free
importation of foreign goods, trusts
would be formed and they would be
more necessary than under a protec-
tive tariff, unless we are willing TO
abandon manufacturing and become
purely an agricultural people.
The primary object of trusts is to in
crease profits by reducing expenses.
Under a trust, the aggregate Of wages
in a particular industry is reduced, not
by cutting down the wages OF those
continuing in employ, but by reducing
the number of h~igh-priced employees,
chiefly in the managing and selling de-
partments of that industry.
If all the Republican papers of Ohio
were combined under one management
with one chief editor, a half-doZen edl-
torial writer's would do the work now
done by hundreds of writers. The
same political views would be ex-
pressed in all of them, just as the
same political views are expressed IN
all of them now, and the variety would
be solely in the local departments OF
the several papers, because that varle-
ty would be necessary and essential to
success in each particular locality.
One man would do the buying for all
of them, and five hundred buyers
would be thrown out OF employment.
Those still employed would probably
receive higher wages than at present
allowed. The saving would be in the
reduction of the force. The political
articles would be prepared under the
supervision Of one chief editor instead
of under hundreds, and so in every
department. The saving would reach
millions Of dollars and the profits to
the stockholders would be correspond
ingly increased.
The greatest trust in the United
States pays the highest wages. 1t
saves by combining the management OF
a great industry to a few men, and not
by cutting down the wages OF those
who are the actual producers. Split
this trust into several pieces, and we
either cut down the profits to the own
ers of the plants or increase the prices
to the consumers of the product. The
tariff has nothing to do with it.
Strike the duty off of steel rails and
the necessity for a trust in that indus
try would be greater than it is now,
and a trust would be formed to take in
every possible foreign competitor.
Strictly speaking. under absolute free
trade human industry would be trade
without a country, would know no
country, would be cosmo-national, not
national. The industry would ignore
g9ographfcal lines and gather into n
fold ali its branches and outposts and
become an International trust. There
is not a steel rail maker in England
who would not gladly combine with his
American competitor to control the
output and absorb the market.
Then the wages of the producing Ia
horer would be cut to an international
scale and he would be helpless in the
hands of the octopus" The only safe
guard the American employ has is in
the protection given him by the duty
on the foreign product. Deprive him
of that. and wages in the United States
would drop to the European level, be-
cause the laborer would be at the mer-
CIV of an international combination OF
capital and the interest of capital in
his particular industry.
protection is far more beneficial to
the laborer than to the capitalist.
Given a free course, with no protection
to the employe. capital would speedily
come to an agreement, and it would
not matter to the capitalist whether
+he nroduct on which he makes a profit
l