The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-06-26

If the trust were personalized one can
easily imagine the look of panied sur
prise upon its face as it read the denun
citation of itself by two men who have
reaped riches from it. It must have been
filed with keen sense of the ingrati-
tude of mortals when Havemeyer went
upon the witness stand and charged the
protective tariff with being its mother
and denied that sugar was in the trust
& because only a paltry per cent protec-
ton was accorded IT. 1t must have re-
called the scenes in Washington in 1894,
after the house had put sugars of all
kinds upon the free list, when Havemeyer
met the Judas Iscariots Of the senate
In his chambers and there made the deal
by which sugar imports We're restored to
the taxed list with ad valorems and addi-
tionals and Determinations that, In their
sum total, gave Mr.. Havemeyers par
ticular share in the trust general pro
lection of 90 per cent and sent sugar
stocks up to 1875.
Grieved as our personifcation of the
trust must have heen at this desertion
by one whom it had served so we'll and
bcfriended so stcutly, there was reserved
for 1t a keener thrust of the dagger OF
ingratitude in the declaration of the pres
ent secretary of war that he is can
didate for the senatorship from Michigan
and that he is going to make his cam
of
senators by the people and of extermi-
nation cf the trust. If Havemeyer dis
owned the mother Alger proposes to COM
nit rlatricide. He declares himself 1.-The
foe to these great amalgamations." They
squeeze the small dealer out of business
and, greatest of all, eliminate the mid
dleman and stifle competition. With q
commodity controlled by one man or
coterie of men. they are not compelled to
seek customers. The dealer must come
to them, take what he can get and pay
without murmur the price asked
What Russell A. AIger knows about
trust formation and methods would make
interesting reading were he to write a
perfectly candid autobiography. He was
in at the beginning and exploited trust
that reached its skinny fingers into every
home in the land, the richest as we'll as
the poorest, and eXacted its tribute 1t
is older than the sugar trust and but lit
tie younger than the Standard Gil 1T
had its inception in both the tariff and
the internal revenue taxes, the one shell
tering it from external competition and
the latter, with it's rebate on stamps
bought in large amounts, enabling it to
shut out its domestic competitors of les
ser magnitude. We refer to the Diamond
Match trust, at whose birth Alger as
sisted and whose extorted wealth he
shared.
The reports of the supreme court of the
United States contain an opinion rendered
in a case growing out of Ayers promo
ton of that trust and the merciless man
ner in which he squeezed one match
maker out OF all he had Briefly stated
the plaintiff put his plant and patents
into the deal with the agreement of Alger
ditO dltObHSI liidl when SCI1e nunOr60 ana
odd thousands came to them out of the
net profits they were to reconvey the
property TO the plaintiff. They received
the stipulated amount and more, but
when asked to restore the property re-
fused. The plaintiff took nothing by his
action because the court held the contract
with Alger and his pal 10 be against pub
lie policy and void. The court scored
Alger severely for his conduct and re-
GREETED that it was unable to award the
plaintiff restitution. but the law would
not permit a party, though grievously
wronged, to use its machinery to enforce
void contract. And this man AIger is
he who now reviles the trust and an
nounces himself It's implacable foe.