Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-10-26
Another Burchard Blunders.

To GO along with Hanna's assertion
that There is not a trust in the en-
tire United States" We now have the
equally positive declaration of Theo-
dore Marburg, the great Baltimore to-
bacco manufacturer, that trusts exist
and have come to stay. He says:
"To talk of aboIisling trusts is as idle
as to talk OF abolishing newspapers or OF
breaking up the great trunk lines and
restoring the many small systems that
previously existed. The trust was born
primarily of the fierce competition be-
tween American manufacturers. If the
tariff in any way conduced to it, it was
only by building up manufactures in
America and providing the conditions
for competition. 1t was the competition,
not the tariff, which produced the
trust"
One object subserved by the gigan-
tic tobacco combine, Mr.. Marburg de-
clares, is to effect saving in the sal
aries OF travelling statesmen. The
trust thus formed does away with the
old idea that competition is the life Of
trade. But the travelling men are not
the only class affected by the system
adopted, for reducing cost of manufac-
ture and to save the vast sums annu-
ally spent in placing the product on
the market. By it, the trust can alb
solutely control the quality, the cost
and the amount of product, as we'll as
the prices at which it may be sold.
With union of forces, in which all
share alike, the public, as we'll as the
operatives, are at the mercy OF the
trust, the former in the prices they
pay and the latter in the wage-rate
accorded. There is no ambition as
there is no object to excel in quality
no desire to increase the amount OF
product beyond that which enables
the trust to regulate prices, and it il
enabled TO rule the labor used in
growth and manufacture, with auto
cratic power.
Mr.. Marbure's blunder in raising
the curtain at this time, exposing the
primary object OF all trusts. to squeeze
the life-blood out of labor, is regarded
il the East with little less apprehen'
sion OF disastrous results than was the
memorable rodomontade OF Rs in the
Blaine.Cleveland campaign. It has
thrown the party leaders into panic
and their only consolation lies in the
fact that the bad break has been made
90 long before election that they may bt
able to explain that he does not voice
the sentiment of his party, howeve,
true his utterance may be. 1t is
however, difficult to prove a negative
even with sound premises to worl
upon, and when the statement, if no,
a self-evident truth, is supported by
all the salient features OF q proven
proposition, the task is indeed diff
ficult one.
The intensity of feeling is not les
sened by the fact that Marburg is no,
in the best of standing with his party
and Senator Wellington, who con
trolled the State machine, came neal
disrupting the party by trying to force
the tobacco king upon the Baltimore
people, instead Of Master, for Mayor
Just before the convention assembled
Msrburg realized that the controlling
delegations were against him and
withdrew from the contest.
It may be, therefore, that disap
pointed ambition has led him tc
knife the party by simply telling the
truth which it was so anxious 10 con.
ceal.