New-York tribune., 1900-05-08
TANMANTS Ice TREST.


paign issue of trusts and it looks as If it might
succeed far beyond its desires. Campaign issues
have troublesome way of formulating them
selves. People take the bit in their teeth, so
to speak and run off with the issues presented
to them in quite q different direction from that
marked out by the platform makers. Just at
present there can be no doubt that the people
OF this city are tremendously interested in and
talking about trusts. Curously enough, how
ever, the trust which most arouSeS their 1ndlg-
nation is the Ice Trust, which has just doubled
its prices 10 poor consumers-the same Ice Trust
in which Mr.. Croker is supposed TO have large
interests. as his political friends and associ-
ates are known to have-the same Ice Trust
whose plant down i'll Maine has just been in
spected by Mr.. Croker's agents, Mr.. Carroll and
Mayor Van Wyck.
1t will not do Tammany orators much good
to denounce the great steel manufacturers to
the poor people, who not buying steel beams,
while they suffering from the hardship of
doubled ice bills to keep Mr.. Croker in English
luxury. The sins of the Standard Oil Trust will
excite no indignation among people who know
that their oil has grown cheaper and better
year by year, while the Tammany leaders who
ask their votes with hypocritical talk about
trusts are charging outrageous prices for the
ice without which life is uncomfortable in the
tenements The poor, who year after year
make up the bulk Of the Tammany vote under
the delusion that Tammany is the friend of
the people" are perhaps too ignorant to ap-
preciate what they lose in health and comfort
by dirty streets The theft and waste of
millions of public money may not come directly
home to them. They may be Indifferent to
police blackmailing. But they do know what
it means when they cannot, as in years gone
by, afford piece of ice to keep their scanty
store of provisions from spelling in the hot
summer days. They do feel the oppression of
the iceman, who under the patronage Of the
city administration drives all competitors out
of business, perfects a trust and charges 60
cents hundred pounds for ice, three times
the summer price charged for ice in small guam
titles in sem-tropical NewOrleans. Other
trusts they know in a general. impersonal way.
The Ice Trust is their own enemy, and all the
hard things they nave learned from Tammany
to believe of the trusts which they have not
seen will be applied to the trust which they
have seen and felt. Tammanys antitrust agi-
tation seems TO have been admirably calculated
to punish the rapacity of it's own demagogues
There is probably no refuge for the great
body of consumers this year from the Tam
many Ice Trust, but certainly they should be
aroused to protect themselves from future rob
berry. Smash the trust" is a motto that
should be relentlessly kept in view by the peo-
pie of New-Iork, and they should smash it
both financially and politically. Experts say
that ice can be profitably manufactured and
sold at rates far below those prevailing even
before the 100 per cent rise in price. We hope
capital independent of Tammany influence de-
string to do philanthropc work will undertake
to compete with the trust. 1t is an enterprise
as worthy of the interest of charitable people
as building reading rooms and supporting ect-
ure courses. If a dozen leaders of great reforms
would take hold of this, establish artificial Ice
plants and sell their product at a fair rate-not
give 1T away as charity, but be content with
the reasonable profit Oh the investment which
the builder Of model tenement houses realizes
they would be doing great good to the poor who
are the direct victims of the Tammany ice
jobbers, and at the same time would be doing
great good TO the whole community by help
ing TO break down the infamous combination
Of business and politics by which Richard
Croker and his assistants are working to fill
their own pockets by means of the city GOV
ernment, as the Tammany boss himself has
publicly confessed. Any independent attempt
to sell ice would doubtless encounter annoyance
from the city authorities, just as Independent
companies were formerly prosecuted by the
Dock Department, but the popular temper is
not disposed to endure much more the use of
power under Mayor Van Wyck to help his friend
Mr.. Morse halve the ice blocks which the door
can buy for their nckels There is a limit be-
yond which even Tammany impudence will not
be tolerated, and are not sure that Tam
manys adventure in the ice business has not
touched the limit 1t may find itself taken at
its word in asking the voters to smash the
trusts" Tammany is the greatest and most
rapacous trust known to the people of this
city.