The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-05-25
Don't Subsidize the Trusts.

"The mother of all trusts is the
Customs Tariff bill" said Mr..
Henry o. Havemeyer.
He is right.
The essence of a trust is mo-
nopoly. But there can be no mo-
n0poly when there is competition
within the same trade area.
Therefore trust whose field is
the United States could not he a
monopoly if the area in which the
people cOuld trade covered the
whole world.
The Steel and Wire Trust is a
"criminal trust" which has been
swindling its own stockholders
and keeping prices up until it
forced consumers to resort to sub
stitutes for its goods. The tariff
taxes all competing wire from
abroad from / to . cents pound
for this trusts benefit.
In addition the trust has pat
entS on barbed wire which, as its
head. Mr. John w. Gates, testi-
fed before the Industrial Com
mission, give it an absolute mo-
nOpoly of that product.
The Tin Plate Trust paid
Judge Moore, Of Chicago, the
enormous fee of ten million dollars
for organizing the combination.
Tin plate is protected by a duty
of a cent and a half a pound.
Thus the consumers of 666. 900,
06O pounds of tin plates, or about
an entire years supply, were taxed
to pay promoters fee.
The Beef Trust has poisoned
our soldiers and pinched the poor
in our cities. 1t is protected by
duties of 10 per cent. on hides,
214 per cent on cattle, 2 cents
per pound on fresh meat and %
per cent on preserved meats.
The various steel trusts, capt
talized at $780,, $50, 600 in all, are
helded by the government to col
lect taxes of from So, y a ton up
ward on their products.
The Sugar Trust and it's allies,
with their capital of SIPS, 600, 900,
pocket about 500, 100000 a year
through the tariff.
The Western Lumber Pool. cap
ital $40, 600, 900, get a bounty of
80 per thousand feet for destroy
ing our forests.
The $50, 100000 National Lead
Company enjoys the nursing bot
tie to the extent Of a cent and a
half a pound on lead.
The $50, 100000 United Seates
Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry Com
pany is allowed TO reach into the
public pocket to the extent of 80
worth on every ton of its goods.
The $7,000,000 Borax Trust,
which has nothing to do but to
shovel it's material off the ground,
is subsidized by the tariff at the
rate of , cents pound
The $50, 100000 Knit Goods
Company and the $50, 600, 900
Print Cloth Pool have the benefit
of duties of 80 per cent and up
ward on the clothing OF the peo-
pie.
Almost every one Of the hun
dreds of trusts that are sucking
the substance of the American
nation is directly dependent upon
some paragraph of the tariff for
it's power of oppression. Begin
to read the tariff schedules and
you may imagine that you are
reading a list of trusts.
"Iron ore," says the Dingley
law, "including manganiferous
iron ore, and the dross or resi-.
dunn from burnt pyrites, forty
cents per ton" flor Rockefeller
and Carnegie).
"Railway bars, made of iron
or steel, and railway bars made
in part of steel, L rails and
punched iron or steel fiat rails,
seven twentieths of one cent pei
pound" Federal Steel Company
and Carnegie Steel Company.
"Sheets or plates of iron OF
steel, commercially known as tin
plates, terne plates and taggers
tin, one and one half cents pei
pound" american Tin Plate
Company.
"Cigars, cigarettes, cheroots OF
all kinds, four dollars and fifty
cents per pound and twenty five
per centum ad valOrem" Ameri
can Tobacco Company.
"Clothing, ready.made, and
articles Of wearing apparel Of
every description, composed
wholly or in part of wool, the
duty per pound shall be four times
the duty imposed by this act oil
one pound Of unwashed wool O
the first class, and in addition
thereto sixty per centum adj va
loren" American Wollen Com
pany).
And so on, adj infiDitum.
There are four hundred an(
sixty-three paragraphs in tn,
duty schedules of the Dingle.
| law an6 II iS SuhctantioIlv %