The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-10-21

chaser pays 90 per cent. more than he
did formerly. Eighty per cent. OF the
carpet mills in the Eastern and Middle
states are controlled by the combina-
ton. Outside of these states the car
petmaking industry is very small and
the trust has the business of the whole
country fairly within it's grasp, Par
ticularIy as it operates in harmony
with the wool trust and kindred COM
binations.
There has been an increase in price
of raw materials used by carpet-makers
due to combinations of the concerns
controlling the materials, but this in
crease Is only a fraction of that
charged by the carpet trust. Further
more. recent improvements in the ma
chinery used in carpet-making more
than offset the increase in the price of
raw materials, but the purchaser new
ertheless pays 20 per cent. more than
he did for the same class of goods.
The average head of a family has
paid, perhaps, little attention to the
formation of such industrial combina-
tons as the wire and wire nail trust.
the chemical trust, the lumber trust
and the iron and steel trusts, thinking
that they do not affect him. Yet he
pays indirectly share of the increased
price which each of these combinations
has made upon the commodity it con-
trok. For instance, the large dry
his wife buys few yards of cloth Is
forced to charge her a trifie more be-
cause of the operations of the trusts
above named. 1t seems wide and dis
connected stretch between the yards
of cloth purchased and the iron, steel,
nail, wire, lumber and chemical trusts.
but nevertheless they all operate to
send up the price.
In the first place, the chemical trust
has increased the price of the dyestuffs
used in coloring the cloth.
The lumber trust has added it's mite
to the price of the pine boards out of
which the packing case in which the
cloth is shipped is constructed. The
wire nail trust has added something to
the cost of the nails with which the
boards are fastened together. The nail
trust makes this increase partly for it's
own profit and partly to cover the in
crease charged by the steel trust for
the raw material. The iron bands
which are nailed around the packing
case to strengthen it cost trifie more
than they formerly did because of the
increased price for the raw material
charged by the iron trust. In addition
to these the operations of the wool or
cotton mill trust have contributed
their share towards raising prices.
There are 800 trusts in existence in
the country. and almost in every In
stance it could be shown that in some
way the average consumer helps to
swell the profits of all.
The print cloth market is three-quar-
tiers of a cent higher per yard this year
than last. Practically all the mills of
the New England states are controlled
by trust, but this increase is not due
entirely to the operations Of that pc
culiar combine.
to an increase of the price of cloth also
affected the prints. Cotton however,
is slightly higher than last year. An
effort was made early this year by
leading cotton dealers to form a cotton
trust with the cooperation of the large
southern plantation owners. The
growers. however, could not be con-
trolled in the matter of acreage, ex-
lutte control of the raw material Is yet
to be effected.-New York World