Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1900-10-26


injustice that may be done, or to calculst
the social and political welware Of the pc
tain specific remedies, pledges the party
monopoly In nation, state and city. I hes
It shall be my earnest and constant end
spirit.
struggle so hard to obtain a monop-
oily is that it enables them to charge
more than the worth of the goods or
services they supply.
In the Bramkamp wire nail case the
attorney for the trust admitted that
the combine had raised the price
from so cents to $3.50 key, whole
profit of several million dollars. That
trust went to pieces, but recently an
other has been formed, and wire nails
have advanced over 140 per cent be-
yond the ordinary competitive price.
Coal Trust E1tortions.
The coal combine was Investigated
by congress in 1898, and the report
declares (D that in 1883 the extortions
of the coal monopoly averaged more
than 81 a ton, or 100000 for the
year; and (2) that from 1873 to 1886
$500, 100000 more than fair market
price was taken from the public by
this combination. It also appeared
that in 1892 the combine raised the
price $1.25 to $1.35 a ton on the kinds
used by housekeepers, though the
price Of coal was already high and the
cost Of mining diminishing every year.
The Linseed Oil Trust in 1887 put
the price up from 80 to 81 cents a gal
Ion, or nearly $5,o00,o0o additional tax
on the yearly output.
In the same year the copper Syndi-
cate put up the price from 10 to II
and l8 cents pound, or $50, 000,0 900 ad-
d4IAon on the yearly output.
A congressional investigation in 1893
brought out the fact that on the
strength OF a rumor that the internal
revenue tax was to be Increased by
congress the Whisky Trust raised it's
prices Is cents a gallon, which would
amount to an additional profit of $12,-
100000 on its yearly output.
DUMP III
In 1883, just after the Sugar Trust
was formed, the average price of raw
sugar was -he same as in 1885, but
the average price of refined sugar adj
vanced so that the difference between
the prica OF raw sugar and the price
OF refined sugar was 76 per cent more
than in 1885 and about 70 per cent
more than in 1887, the year the trust
was formed. Recently sugar has made
advances amounting to total of 2
cents on the pound. For dozen years
we have paid each year a good deal
more per pound for refining sugar than
we did in 1885 (although the cost Of
refining has been constantly diminish
dng), and our sugar bill has averaged
at least $10,000,00o and perhaps $780,
100000 a year more because Of the
trust.
Standard Oil Again.
4he Standard Oil is another monop-
oily that has kept prices form falling
as much as the diminished cost of
transportation and refining would have
caused them to fall in an open market,
and at times it has lifted prices abso-
1utely as well as relatively, in spite
jor the vast improvements in processes
>ef manufacture, Great cheapening Of
Transportation by the pipeline service,
and the falling price of crude oil.
From 1894 to 1901, for example,. the
price Of refined oil went up IA per cent,
while the pr1ce Of crude oil declined
Is per cent. Oil rose at wholesale in
New York from cents in November,
po97, to cents In December, 1899,
and it has gone still higher in 1900.
One may charge the fair value Of
the services he renders without mon
opoly. But monopoly gives power
TO charge more than that value, In
other words, monopoly 1confers the in
estimable privilege of demanding
something for nothing. .
Tho Telegraph Monopoly.
We pay twice as much for our tele-
grams as government ~ystems charge;
tho telephone monopoly charged the
federal government SIS per phone for
service the government is now sup
plying for itself at a cost OF SO per
phone, and even in our largest city
exchanges, where the monopoly
charges $50 to $3.50, tue service could
be rendered at a profit for uniform
caarge OF $50 a year. - =
The Bell monopoly, IN Grand Rap
ids. Wis, charged 1886 for a house and
$48 for : business place, while CO.
operative telephone exchange Is oper-