The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-04-14
yAe Stlsssemn.
4 PORTENTOUS INDICATION PRO-
DUCED BIZ TRUSTS

rIlQay last There was a great Dig
scare on Wall Street that made the
timbe. shiver all about. A great panic
was barely prevented by the appear
ance of money in abundance. The
net decline in stocks was very great
LA in number-and the amount was
$SC, 000, 900. The bad situation was
brought about, it is said, by the great
and increas md still increasing dis
elimination against industrials general
1y. Again, we say, look out for squalls.
The combines and trusts and great
consultations are playing havoc lately.
1t will be worse yet soon or late. The
New York Times says in its Saturdays
issue:
THE situation was brought about by
increased discrimination against indus
trial and traction stocks, or what are
termed untried stocks. The lack Of
support to speculative holdings in the
rapid decline forced commission houses
w1en an appeal for increased margins
was commended to ave greater losses
by throwing the stocks overheard. The
opening Of the market suggested weak
ness and extreme over the
money situation, but there was no in
dication III the first dealings that the
lower quot9tions presaged a t~Oboggan-
slide decline. Money was lent accord
ing to the nature OF the security offered
) per cent. ON dividend-paying stocks
to IL per cent. on mixed securities,
which were rated at 70 per cent. on
market value of railroad shares and 80
per cent. on industrials. No rate was
offered on blocks of industrials except
those cllSse' as gilt edged"
Before two years pass there will be
many a record to make Of bad failures
in business the greatest of which will
probably be decidedly traceable to the
conduct and character of trusts. Here
are SOM recent reports on Wall Street
of new combines:
Carpet mills, capital IS, 200, 900;
Barre, VT, granite quarrymen and deal
ers, capital So, 600, 900; Baltimore brick
manufacturers, capital $4,000, 900; card
ed wooden mills, capital ST. 200, 900; cot
ton yarn mills, capital 500, 900, 900;
manufacturers of car supplies, capital
$50, OOO, 900; National Fish Company,
capital $4,000, 900; manufacturers of gas
and electric light fixtures"
A big cotton mill trust was reported
last week as being on the way. Will
the southern and eastern mills rush in
to this fearful mrselstrom? What would
follow if this plan materializes? The
Houston (Texas) Post says:
k.
But if the New England mills should
form a trust and begin to cut prices and
inaugurate a bitter warfare, backed by
immense capital, against the indepen-
dent mills, such serious inroads would
likely be made in the business of the
latter that many of them would be
forced to the wall or into the combine.
The trust would gather year by year,
until soon we should cease to near of
the erection of new mills because of
ztheir poor promise of profits"
Thus far the ablest discussion that
has come under u eye as to grave
results that will probably come from
monopolies has appeared in New York
Journal of Commerce. 1t has pointed
out wildly, forcefully the great dang
els lud GulCdLCIl III SOuhIl " "a
gantic combinations that really are gi-
gantic enemies as we'll as monopolies.
What is the purpose, the end sought,
in these great consultations? Let the
able trade and commercial journal OF
New York City answer:
Their controlling aim is to defeat
competition. Not to regulate or mod
crate it; that is insufficient for the ac-
complishment of their purposes; but to
absolutely eXtinguish it. Partial Or
qualified competition in industry is an
impOssibility; there must be either pure
monopoly or full and free competition.
If the former cannot be maintained,
then the trust principle fails and must
be abandoned. 1t may be much doubt
ed whether these organizations at all
appreciate the magnitude of the obsta-
-cles they must encounter in their efforts
to make a pure monopoly permanent.
"a very large majority of the monOp-
olies have incorporated into their finan-
acial structure an element of fatal weak
ness. In most cases, the plant of the
several properties consolidated has been
e "egiously ~over-valued. Effete, sup
erseded and practically worthless ap-
planes of production have been taken
at preposterous valuations; and the de-
ceptive Pigment Of good will has been
credited with ridiculous values. The
result is that, with respect at least to
the more recent creations, the capital
ization is double that for which a plant
of equal productive capacity and includ-
ing the most recent improvements could
be provided"
It need not surprise any one if the
huge house of cards should in the
end tumble about the ears of the con
%spirators and blood-suckers and crush
them who have crushed thousands of
their poorer, struggling countrymen.
They are counting on destroying,
sweeping out Of existence all smaller
manufacturing rivals and they will in
all probability accomplish it if their
own grasping plans do not fail and by