The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-09-13
THE SCRANTON WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 49,

iects. the Standard oil company has vast
ly cheapened the process of refining oil;
vastly more, we are prepared to believe,
than this difference in price shows; but |
the illustration, when the relative price |
of crude oil is considered, fails to show |
that this saving has been given to the |
public, in any degr p beyond what was |
actually necessary to enable the company |
to retain its hold on the market; in fact |
to no degree whatever. If any corre- |
spending reduction in the price of refined |
oil could be shown, to what should 1t be |
referred? The tender, sensitive regard |
of the STANDARD Oil company for II de- |
pendent public, its sense of equity and |
justice or the restraints of foreign
competitor?
Take another trust, not so old, but one
equally entrenched, and controlling also
another Indispensable article, the sugar
trusts. The tables for the last fifteen
years. carefully collated by Mr.. Holt. In
his article in the June number of the Re
view of Reviews, and which have not
been disputed to my knowledge show
that under control of the trust, the price
of refined sugar has steadily increased,
In the ratio 1t bears to the price of the
raw material; so that no matter how
much cheapening there has been in the
process Of refining, the public has derived
no benefit whatever therefrom. Mr..
Holts estimate is that the public have
paid tribute annually to this trust, not
less than ten millions OF dollars, proba-
bly, reaching twenty millions. Take still
another trust, whose arbitrary action in
raising the market price OF the article IL
deals in has recently affected all OF us,
| the beef combine 1t is idle to say that
| such combinations have the effect of
| Cheapening the price of the article they
! severally produce, except as 1t is shown,
that such reduction results from some
| thing else than their good pleasure, that
| II is compelled. 1t is ascribing to them
| a virtue and self abnegation which, to
| say the least, is not common among in
dividual producers, who have both con-
sciences to chide and characters to re-
| gard. Until 1t be shown that there was
| some compelling cause that required the
| Standard Oil company to cheaper the
| price of its commodities and the sugar
| trust to cheapen its, we shall incline to
| the opinion that they are higher than
| they would have been, but for their in
| tervention.
Nor is the answer that extortion will
| be corrected by competition satisfactory.
| Applied to individual producers, this logic
| could be conclusive; but nothing less
| powerful than the eXtortng trust itself,
| can intimidate or affect it's action; and
| the very immensitN of the undertaking
| suggests the difficulty. II not impossible
| ity, or organizing for such an enterprise.
| 1t ia one thing to effect a combination Of
| fifty existing and established plants it is
| quite another thing to organize and and
| capitalize an Independent association of
the capacity of the fifty SO combined. 1t
was a simple matter for the two hundred
| and ninety tin plate mills, all there are
in this country, to come under one COM
| bne: It would be a very difficult under
| taking to organize and capitalize con-
Germ on competitive basis with such an
| an rnt rAnfC tul ig hAf ton raTr r,sa
and too conservative for such hazards
| as this would be.
| Concerning tho labor of the country, the
| objection urged has regard to future, not
| present oppression; and the claim Is that
| it Is as necessary a result as those We
| have been considering, produced by the
| same condition. We have seen how the
monopoly must become oppressive to the
| raw material interest. The industry REP
| resented by the latter affords the widest
field for labor. The treasures of mine,
field, forest and stream are all within its
dominion. The producer from these sourc-
cs, himself oppressed, compelled TO accept
for his material the least possible margin
of profit, is driven to economic in the
only way he can, at the expense of tire
labor he employs, and becomes an opLrCS-
sor in his turn. 1t is not hard TO see that,
in the end the extortion practiced by the
monopoly must fall upon labor, for the
| reason that II Is the least dDlC TO resist
Keeping in mind the fact that the effort
of our gigantic enterprises Is to gain a
hold upon the worlds markets for our
surplus products, and that. in order to ac-
Complish IT, their products must be cheap
encd to a profitable competitive basis. in
comparison with the foreign product,
and the further fact that the advantage
is now, and always has been, with our
enterprises, in everything that enters into
the finished product, excepting labor, 1t
would seem reasonable to expect labor
| to suffer in such a competitive struggle
as is sure to result. Once labor. which
enters so largely into the cost of every
| finished product, say on an average $,
! per cent. of the whole becomes as cheap
here as ii is abroad, an easy supremacy
in the worlds markets is given US. Here
is a temptation to the greed of capital
| and enterprise which no one need eX'
! peCt to be resisted The way is open and
easy, under present conditions, to achieve
it, Nothing Is so plentiful in the world
as labor, and the markets of the worlC
can be drawn upon for this as for any
other supply. The importation Of cheaI
, labor is even now no longer an expert
ment. The apprehension of dire calam
ity to American labor, resulting from tho
uncontrolled domination of the trust a!
| we now have it, has foundation alike il
: | reason and experience.