Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-09-16

not likely to believe that it will be done.
The fact is that as the cost of produce
ton is reduced the price is lowered sutfi-
GENTLY to preserve the monopoly. Then
the saving in production is divided
among the shareholders in the monopoly.
The consumer who has lost his means
of livelihood through the establishment
of the monopoly pays the price that
makes his d%estroyers rich. May / add
that there is a limit to low prices? They
may be SO low as to make every one
poor. The farmer can not receive prices
that will enable him to live if the buyer
of his produce is working for starvation
wages. Cheap goods make cheap men,"
The trust drives the small manufac-
turer and merchant, whether individual
firm or corporation, out of business. 1t
prevents men of small capital from
starting Independent business.
b. swallowing up smaller concerns, it
throws travelling statesmen, clerks, fore
men and managers out of employment.
For the purpose of reducing expenses and
limiting production it shuts up factories
and adds to the army of unemployed.
Thus it is that the class of consumers is
lessened in numbers. In other words the
market is narrowed.
The forcing of watered securities upon
the market is not the least of the evils
of trusts. Let me illustrate how a trust
of today is organized, and you will ap-
preciate the force of this statement:
Take the tobacco trust. Suppose there
are forty large tobacco factories in the
country. The promoter of the trust visits
most of them and pictures in glowing
terms to each company the benefits of
forming a trust. They conclude to take
a large amount of stock and bonds
inventory and appraisal of it's property,
made by itself. OF course, the valuations
are ample, so that one company will not
gain an advantage over another and re-
ceive more than its share of the stock
and bonds of the trust. In fact, these
valuations are greatly inflated.
Finally all this property is transferred
ormous capital. For this work the finan-
ciers also receive a large amount of the
stock and bonds of the trust. The forty
smal corporations are dissolved and the
trust is born. It Immediately executes
a mortgage on its property and issues
bonds usually equal to the amount of it's
stock. The stock and bonds are given in
liberal amounts to the promoter and the
and distributed among the
stockholders of the forty small COM
panies. 1t is plain to the dullest Of us
that this process means immense guam
titles of water" in the stock n bonds
OF the trust. But what do the promoter
and the financier care about that?
The ones who suffer are the innocent
who purchase the securities as invest !
ments, and the men and women who are
thrown out of employment by the closing
of factories made necessary by the econ
omy'' of the trust management. Event
ually the wages of the employees are re- !
duced and the consumer pays a tribute
In high prices in order that dividends and
may be paid to the owners of the
heavily 'watered" stock and bonds of the
trust. This is the evil feature of the pres
ent craze for trusts. against which the
financial journals and authorities cry
out. They predict a fearful panic i'll a
few years as a result of 1t. They are
thinking of the distress which will come
to their clients.
It is not true that a better article,
lower prices, ready employment and bet
ter wages will follow as a result OF the
trust, for when it becomes necessary to
pay dividends and interest on heavily
stock and bonds 1t can not
the case. But, aside from this. the en-
tire scheme of the trust is inhuman. II
treats man as a beast of burden. or de-
grades him to the position of a slave.
This brings me to the most serious as
pect of the trust question. Throw aside
all consideration of the money involved,