, 1899-11-09
TALK WITHOUT THINKING.
People Who Argue That the Removal Of
the Tsrin Would Abolish the Trusts.

the Tsrif Would Abolish tho Trusts.
That a free-trader is a person who
simply recites formulas without a
thought as to their application is
again shown by the attitude of the
remnant of the old Cobdenite contin-
gent in the Chicago conference. One
after one the votaries-a man named
Purdy from New York and a man
named Holt from Boston and a man
named Seymour from Chicago-like
savage priests beating the temple gong,
intone solemnly the words, Abolish
the tariff and you abolish the trusts"
thump their breasts, bump their brows
and retire into the robing room.
Not n of these men had apparently
ever thought of the consequences OF
the practice proposed any more thar
ne mad examined the basis of the the
ory propouDded. He had heard that
the tariff prevented competition, that a
lack of competition created trusts and
that trusts raised prices, and thai,
therefore, the lack OF a tariff would
prevent trusts and lower prices. Not
one had ever tested the grounds of
major premise, nor noted the pat
ent facts that the greatest trusts are
the unprotected industries. and that
the greatest increase Of prices has been
IN the most keenly competed Indus
tries. As with cause SC with effect.
Not one can possibly hare considered
for an instant the immediate result of
the adoption by the government of the
course proposed.
The American C1por corapanu and
Its solitary rival are in all mems
minds when the subject of a trust in a
protected industry is mentioned. Let
us suppose the tariff abolished on this
commodity. What would be the result
of the impact of the German, Austrian,
French n Belgian goods upon the
producers of the American goods?
Which would suffer-the great COM
bination with its $50, 0O0. 900 capital.
Its enormous reserve of undivided
profits, Its huge plants and conse-
quently cheap output, or the single
corporation which is fighting 1t? Is it
not plain that it would not be the
trust" or combination of concerns
which would succumb to his foreign
competition, but the individual con-
Germ? And what, then, would be the
result? We saw 1t here a little over a
year ago when the foreign steamship
companies formed a pool to wiring
double rates from the United States
government for carrying the Spanish
prisoners to their homes. The result
would be the formation of that thing
so completely irresponsible and wholly
uncomfortable in its absolution from
the governance of the public opinion Of
its vicinage-the international trust.
We would have a thing whose ex-
cesses would be blamed N Germany
upon the American sugar trust. And
the healthful domestic competition,
which inside the tariff, with the aid of
jealous public sentiment, had regu-
lated the price of the commodity,
would be extinct.
Every step of these processes must
be u~navoidably plain to the most COM
monplace mind at the moment that 1t
is concentrated on the subject. Yet
gentlemen travel a thousand miles,
considering their problem all the
way, and never once putting their
formulated solution to the most OBJ
vious test of practice. There is no
barbarian religion more thoroughly
%benumbing to the mind than the out
worn doctrines of free trade.-New
York Press.