New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-07-21
ICE TRUST USING SPIES.
THEY FOLLOW THE INDEPENDENT
DEALERS.
GET THEIR CUSTOMERS NAMES AND THEN
OFFER ICE AT CUT RATES

GET THEIR CUSTOMERS NAMES AND THEN
OFFER ICE AT CUT RATES.
The common sense of NEWCOMERS is being put
to the test just now by the Ice Trust. and if
of ice fall into the trap that is being laid for
them they will have only themselves to blame for
the total extinction of independent dealers. There
at present a score OF secret agents Of
the American Ice Company who paid to do
nothing but follow the wagons OF the independent
dealers all over their daily routes and make accu-
rate lists of the names and addresses of the Gus
toners whom they with ice. The next step is
for them to call upon these customers and offer
them ice lower rates than asked by the indie.
pendent dealer. If the Independent dealer Is asking
40 cents hundred the trusts agents offer it for so
cents. and II that does not capture the customer
they will offer it for rs cents. and perhaps 20, and
even Is in some extreme cases.
ICE TRUST OFFERS sPURNED.
To the credit of NEWCOMERS it can be truthfuly
said that many of them have refused these tempt
ing offers of the Trust and have stuck to the in
dependent dealers. preferring to pay more for
their ice rivals of the Trust than less to its
agents These people farseeing enough and
thoughtful enough to understand that if the Trust
could only crush the independent dealer entirely
out of existence there would be difficulty then
in raising the price the 60 cent again. But
the craftiness of the Trust is of high degree. In
order to fool people who would not deal with it
even on the most favorable terms il sends out
pendent Dealers but not These fur
nished the and addresses of customers of in
dependent dealers. and going TO them offer ice at
cut rates. declaring that they not Trust agents
but really rival independent dealers looking for
trade in a perfectly proper way and able to offer
ice at lower rates than any one else.
RUSE TO DRIVE OUT SMALL DEALERS.
A named Scheer has been particularly active
and successful In getting customers who believed
he a dealer wholly independent of the Trust.
Scheer had business cards printed, which gave his
address No 536 West Thirty eIghth-st. Investi-
CATION showed that address to be a blacksmith
shop Scheerfs n bear the peculiar brand of
the American 4oeJ Company their hoofs also,
each having It's number burned there with a
hot iron. Since 7THupley have been getting on" to
Scheer his wagons being painted white and
painted them.
These little subterfuges will not avail him here
after, II is thought with those who read the papers
and keep their open; and that the Contempti-
BILE tactics of the rich Ice Trust In using foul
means and spies to drive Independent dealers out
of the business will be resented by NEWCOMERS
to be proved by the fate which overlook
of these fellows the other day. An independent
dealer. who discovered that innocent looking
young bicycle who had followed him
from the time he loaded up with ice at the rivers
edge, was really a spy jumped from his wagon
suddenly and struck the btcyclist so violently on
the jaw that and wheel went down in heap.
Bystanders, thinking the attack unprovoked, were
about to interfere, but when the Ice dealer eX-
planned that the spy in the employ
of the hated Trust, the bystanders urged the ice
dealer to hit him again, and the spy had all he
could do get away without serious injury, fol-
lowed by the boots and jeers of the crowd