Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1900-10-18

One of the main reasons why men
struggle so hard to obtain 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 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 140 per cent be-
yond 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 a ton, or $39,000,000 for the
year; and (2) that from 1873 to 1886
5000, 100000 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 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 38 to So cents gall
lon, OF nearly S5,O00000 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 $30,000,000 au-
DION on the yearly output.
A congressional investigation in 1893
brought out the fact that on the
strength OF rumor that the internal
revenue tax was to be increased by
congress the Whisky Trust raised its
prices % cents gallon, which would
amount to an additional profit of s12,-
100000 on its yearly output
Jump In Sugar.
In 1888, 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 pric. OF raw sugar and the price
of refined sugar was 76 per cent more
than in 1885 and about 20 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 deai
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 $10,000,00O and perhaps $780,
100000 a year more because of the
trust
Standard Oil Again.
he 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-
lutely as well 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 prlce of crude oil declined
per cent. Oil rose at wholesale in
New york from cents in November,
1887, to cents in December 1899,
and it has gene still higher in 1900.
One may charge the fair value of
the services he renders without a mon
opoiy. But monopoly gives power
to charge more than that value, in
other words monopoly confers the in
estimabie privilege of demanding
something for nothing.
The 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 500 to $3.50, tie service could
be rendered at profit for uniform
c..arge of $50 year.
The Bell monopoly, in Grand Rap
ids, Wis. charged $50 for a house and
SIS for business place, while CO.
operative telephone exchange is oper-