Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1900-10-18


monopoly in nation. state and city. 1 he.
spirit.
One of the main reasons why men
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
the combine had raised the price
from 80 cents to $3.50 a key, whole
sale, securing thereby a monopoly
profit of several million dollars. That
trust went to pieces, but recently an
other has been formed, and wire nails
have advanced over 14O per cent be-
You'd the ordinary competitive price.
Coal Trust Extortions.
The coal combine was investigated
by congress in 1898, and the report
declares % that in 1888 the extortions
of the coal monopoly averaged more
than 81 ton, or s39,00O,OOQ for the
year; and ~ that from 1873 to 1886
$200,000,000 more than a fair market
price was taken from the public by
this combination. 1t also appeared
that in 1892 the combine raised the
price $1.25 to $1.35 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 SO to 80 cents a gall
Ion, or nearly s5.O00,oO0 additional tax
on the yearly output.
In the same year the copper Syndi-
cate put up the price from 10 to IL
and Is cents pound, or $30,000,O00 au-
d..4on on the yearly output.
A congressional investigation in 1898
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 % cents gallon, which would
amount to an additional profit OF s12,-
100000 on it's yearly output.
Jump In Sugar.
In 1888, just after the Sugar Trust
was formed, the average price of raw
sugar was me same as in 1855, but
the average price OF refined sugar adj
vanced SO that the difference between
the price OF raw sugar and the price
of refined sugar was 76 per cent more
than in 1855 and about 20 per cent
more than in 1857, 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 mas been constantly diminish
ing), and our sugar bill mas averaged
at least s100o0,000 and perhaps 500
100000 a year more because of the
trust.
Standard OH Again.
lhe 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 llfted prices abso-
lutely as we'll as relatively, in spite
of the vast improvements in processes
OF manufacture, great cheapening of
transportation by the pipeline service,
and the falling price of crude oil.
From 1894 to 1897, for example, the
price of refined oil went up IA per cent,
while the price of crude oil declined
6 per cent. Oil rose at wholesale in
New York from cents in November,
1887, to 6 cents in December, 1899,
and it has gone still higher in 1900.
One may charge the fair value Of
the services he renders without a mon
opoly. But monopoly gives power
to charge more than that value, in
other words, monopoly confers 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;
the telephone monopoly charged the
federal government SIS per phone for
service the government is now sup
plying for itself at cost of $40 per
phone, and even in our largest CITY
exchanges, where the monopoly
charges $50 to $3.50, tue service could
be rendered at profit for uniform
Charge of $50 year.
The Bell monopoly, in Grand Rap
ids, Wis, charged s36 for a house and
$4S for business place, while a CO.
operative telephone exchange is oper-