Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-04-23
PRESSING THE TRUST CUES
TON.
BY the Late Hon. David a. Wells

ID lhe IIAte DaSAu "a
CMr. Wells wrote this vigorous article
on Trusts in 1892. 1t has never been
| published except in the New England
Almanac. The New England Free Trade
| League, which published the Almanac, be-
lieving that it is as cool advice as ever,
| furnishes it for publication exactly as Mr..
Wells wrote IT'D
What is a trust? In the popular and
political sense it means a combination
of the domestic producers of certain
| commodities to control production and
| advanced prices. No trust Of this
kind, operating on articles for which
| there is a possible competitive sup
| ply from other countries, could be
maintained in the United States for a
single month except under one or two
conditions-either all the competitive
| producers throughout the world must
be brought into the trust" or, what
is the same thing, the product of the
whole world must be controlled; or the
| product of all foreign producers must
be shut out from the markets of this
country. The first result is not attain
able. 1t would be obviously impracti-
cable to induce all the manufacturers
of starch, for example, in all the diff
| ferent countries of Europe, to unite
and put the control of their business in
hands of trustees residing in the Unit
ed States. The second is made not
only possible, but effective in the
highet degree, by the imposition of tar
| ifs, or duties, on the importation of
the articles in which the trusts are es-
| pletely bar them out of the American
| market. These duties the Mckinley
tariff, act provides. (The Dingley tar
| if r~e-enacted or increased them. Ed
1t thus becomes the creator and pre-
server of trusts and monopolies, the
like of which cannot and do not eX-
! list under the tariff system of Great
Britain, as the Starch Trust, Plate and
| Window Trust, Nail Trust, Linseed Oil
i Trust, Lead Trust, Cotton Begging
/ Trust, Borax Trust, Axe, Saw and
| Scythe Trust. Cracker, Cake and Bis
| cult Trust, Rubber Boot and Shoe
trust, and many others; all of which
freed from foreign competition, are
advancing prices to American consum-
ers to an extent that will afford them
from so to 100 per cent more profit
| than can be fairly considered as legit-
innate, but in which profits their en-
ployees do not participate. There are
more than one hundred trusts in the
United States that could have NO exls-
tence except for the high duties that
have been enacted or kept on, in order
to maintain and protect them. How
did your representative in the last
Congress vote?
Did he vote for the Salt Trust, pro-
tected and alone made capable of ex-
istence by a duty of from A to IS per
cent?
Did he vote for the Window Glass
Trust, with a protection of from 12o
to 135 per cent?
Did he vote for the Linseed Oil
Trust, with a protection of rs per
cent?
Did he vote for the White Lead
Trust. with a protection of over 80 per
cent?
Did he vote for the Starch Trust,
with a protection of over 90 per cent.
Did he vote for the Steel Trust, with
a protection running from 40 to lis
per cent?
And SO of all the other trusts pro-
tected by the tariff and especially by