The Globe-republican., 1899-06-01
WHERE THEY THRIVE
TRUSTS FLOURISH IN FREE
TRADE BRITAIN.
Any Attempt to Grapple with Combines
by the Abolition of Protection In the
United States Would Prove Dangerous
to Domestic Industries.

San Francisco Chronicle: Under the
caption, 1.-The Growth of Monopoly in
English Industry" H. w. Macrosty, in
the March Contemporary Review, fur
nishes some interesting information re-
speeding trusts in Great Britain,
which deserves to be attentively stud
led by those misguided writers who as
sumo that protection is responsible for
the movement in the direction of In
dustrial combinations SO prevalent in
this country at present.
Mr. Macrosty furnishes abundant evil
dence that the phenomena is not con-
fined to protective countries, and shows
that the movement is as far-reaching
in free-trade England as in the United
States. Speaking of the growth OF
combinations in the United Kingdom.
he says:
"Single amalgamations, while not
entirely excluding competition, control
the screw, cotton, thread, salt, alkali
and India rubber tire industries. In
other cases formal agreement Of mas
tiers fixes prices; thus. in the hollow
ware trade (metal utensils) prices are
arranged by an informal ring of dozen
Birmingham firms. Similarly there is
No open market in anthony, nickel,
mercury, lead pipes, fish supply and
petroleum. Steel and iron rails are con-
troiled by an English rail ring, which
SO manages matters that it is under
sold by American, Belgian and German
competitors. All the largest firms in
the newspaper making industry have
just consolidated their interests into
one large combination. In the engi-
neering trades twenty-four firms have
a subscribed capital of 914,245,0O0. In
1897 Armstrong & Co. absorbed Whit
worth & Co., raising their capital to
94,210,000 In the process. Vickers &
Co., the armor plate manufacturers,
are another example of a very large
amalgamation. In the spring of 1897
they bought up the Naval Construction
and Armament company, and later
they acquired the Maxim-Nordenfeldt
Guns and Ammunition company. Now
they boast of being the only firm ca
pable of turning out battleship COM
plete in every respect. The most note
worthy examples Of combination, how
ever, are to be found in the Birming-
ham staple trades and in the textile
industries
This condensation is supplemented
by extended details showing that slow
ly but surely the British organizer is
bringing every possible plan of money
making within the field of his opera
lions, and that England is rapidly be-
coming the home of trusts. Here is
his summing up:
I'VE thus see in British industry a
steady movement toward combination
and monopoly, a movement which is
the natural outcome of competition, and
therefore not capable Of being prevent
ed or undone by law"
The keen critic will not fail to note
that this admission is fatal to the as
sumption that protection is responsible
for the creation of trusts. II trusts
are the natural outcome of COMPETE
ton, as Mr.. Macrosty AYERS, then the
evil cannot be attributed to a policy
which has the effect of restraining the
area of competition. We may add that
this view, that competition is respon-
sible for combinations, has found ex-
preston in the works of such distin-
guished free traders as ]. Thorold
Rogers, and that it is only the
''feather-weight" economists, fighting
under the Golden banner in this coun-
try, who have sought to fasten the re-
sponsibility for the evil on protection.
Not only is protection not responsible
for the trust evil, but it may be claimed
that it offers the only remedy for its
suppression. We venture to say that
no protectionist will assent to the prop
Osition that combination is mot capa-
BILE of being prevented or undone by
law" but it is natural enough for a
free trader to assume that the evil is
irremediable, as Mr.. Macrosty does in
his closing sentence, in which he says:
Nevertheless, with the weapon of
state control in hand, combination may
be welcomed. and if control proves in
sufficient, state purchase and public ad-
ministration remain behind"
Protectionists, accustomed as they
are to the idea Of regulation, will not
hesitate to resort to the most drastic
measures il they find it necessary to do
so in order to stamp out the evil. BY
carefully limited the area of COMPETE
ton to their own country the states
men Of protective nation can con-
troll trusts, but that will be found an
impossible achievement in a free-trade
country. for the simple reason that the
attempt to prohibit combination in a
land with wide-open trade doors will
prove destructive to domestic indus
try.