Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1899-05-11
The Trusts and Protection.

I 10y ----O S"N A'SVp Vi saAAD SasJt
continue to whoop it up that trusts
are the result Of protection and Re-
publicanism, especially the former.
They also say this is the only country
having trusts. Really these editors
should read the papers, then they
might have observed that an oil trust
without any duty whatever to prompt
or help it, has been more profitable
and powerful than any Of the concerns
which deal with protected articles.
Reading people also know that such
combinations have multiplied in Great
Britain, without any duties to aid
them, even more rapidly than in this
country. A recent series Of articles
by "The London Economist" not in
tended to cover anything like all the
corporations Of industrial character,
but only those which have been in &C.
tive operation, have paid dividends in
some Of the last five years and have
securities quoted in the market, in
cluded one hundred and eighty.three
combinations, but with all the energy
Of the promoters and sensational ru-
NOR manufacturers in this country
there are only about one hundred and
forty, actual or imaginary, mature,
born or only partly born, included in
the list Of American combinations.
Nor is it SO much question Of num-
Der as of variety, for the British list
includes hotels and sweetmeat deal
ers, clothiers from Redfern to Baker,
warehouses and stores Of all sorts, the
Armstrong Iron works, the great
shipbuilders, the carriage and car
makers, bolt and nut makers and coal
mines, manufacturers Of thread like
Coates, Of cartridges like Eley, Of
Pears soap, jam and dog biscuit.
Combinations have been sufficiently
varied in this country also to make it
absurd to suppose the tariff the author
Of their being. A host Of them are
in gas works and street railways for
cities, which can have no foreign
competition; in electric roads and
heat and power plants; in breweries
of many cities which are not even ex-
posed to competition from other towns
in this country, but do ship beer to
Europe; in elevators, which no for
eigner offers to import; in ice, which
is frozen as cheaply in American
water as anywhere; in milk supplies
for various cities, oyster beds, peanuts
and vinegar. But II combinations are
found desirable in scores Of such cases
where no foreign competition exists
or is possible, what sense is there in
that Others formed in the
manufacture Of many protected arti-
cles are caused by the tariff
The story Of coal combination,
referring to anthracite only, excites
one innocent to say that it is the re.
suit Of the duty on bituminous coal,
there being none on anthracite, which |
IS largely exported to Canada. The
brick combination moves somebody |
10 imagine that there actually be a |
lood of foreign bricks but for the
.aritl. The tinplate combination is
'aled by somebody child of the
Dlngley duty, whereas it was formed
when American tinplates were under
hat duty being largely exported to
england. The rail combination was
ormed by men who were then and
IRE now exporting steel rails, and the
structural steel combination by men
who were exporting structural beams
md angles, and Others in the iron
md steel industry were formed under
ike conditions. The main cause in
most Of these cases was the extreme
depression of prices resulting from
competition among the home pro-
lucers. Whether they take a wise
way to check that competition or not
emains to be seen, but the fact is
hat under the operation Of the tariff
heir prices have been so reduced
hat the product could be exported at
profit. The plain truth is that
numerically a large share Of the new
ordinations have been created for
10 better reason than in order to
manufacture securities which could
g sold at a profit. But the more
ubstantial and solid, which have an
economic reason for being, came into
xistence almost without exception