New-York tribune., 1900-05-14
IT'S SHORT CROP" ARGUMENT NOT
BORNE OUT.
MOST OF ITS RIVALS ARE SUFFERING THAT
WAY. BUT 1T HAS LARGE SURPLUS
ICE TRUSTS "SHORT CROP"

Bought recently smaller lots. ots..........:: 100000
can turn out yearly. at average cost OF 81 100 ooo
New-Yorks Ice consumption last 100000
surnus in ice trusts control l........ 2,so7 600
Price last summer to small consumers 80
rree e'' this "1'inf summer small
cents hundred, or.............'.'..'.Si2 per ton
The officials of the Ice Trust only adding
insult to injury when they attempt to make
New Workers believe that the rise of lOO per
cent in the price of ice to small consumers this
summer is justified by the shortage of last WIN
ters natural ice crop in the Hudson. That last
winters ice crop net up to the general aver
age is freely admitted on all sides but the fig
ures of experts show that the ice crop in Maine
practically unlimited and with freight at
80 cents ton on ice from Maine to New-York
which is the rate that prevailed last summer
even a total failure Of the Hudson River crop
could have been proftably made up by the ice
harvesters of Maine if they had desired to cut
enough for that purpose.
why did not the thrifty farmers and fisher
men of Maine profitably employ their idle winter
months by cutting a more than usually huge
supply of ice for the New-York market?" said
an ice dealer Saturday, repeating Tribune
reporters question. Il will tell you why
Because reports industriously spread
throughout Maine last winter that the ice
crop on the Hudson River, though small
was sufficient, together with the surplus
left over from the previous year. to supply all
New-York's demands and there would be no
money in cutting more than the trust required
The beauty of this shrewd method of stavng off
competition lies in the fact that only the simple
truth was told. Your really clever rogue only
lies when lie is needful. Sometimes the truth
helps him better than any lie You see now
what a fine thing a surplus of Ice is A novice
might think that trust held a surplus in order
to provide against possible failure of crop, but
the chief of the surplus in trust tactics is to
scare off small operators who might. If the crop
failed in one spot cut in the aggregate mighty
crop in some other spot, and thus upset the plans
of the trust.
"At the same time that this hocus-pocus game
was being played in Maine the trust was neg
lectng cut from the Hudson nearly as much
as it could have easily secured. Tugs were
ployed. too, many persons charge, to keep NOV
ing up and down the river wherever the ice was
forming near icehouses not controlled by the
trust and thus rivals prevented from
storing large quantities of ice which they had
counted The tugs would break up the ice
fields they formed, and the shattered foes
would be carried down stream and out to sea-
By these methods a short crop indeed
assured for everybody but the trust. 1t, how
ever uses the short crop cry for its ends
with great persistency; but, for all that it has
secured enough ice to have neat surplus left
over, by which it will be able to check the en-
thusiasm of small ice cutters in Maine and play
the old trick once more next winter"
ENORMOUS PROFITS OF THE TRUST.
Experts who have been watching the move
ments Of the Ice Trust narrowly for some time
gave The Tribune reporter the foregoing figures
of the ice which the trust controls this summer
and the following. which appears in the current
number of Cold Storage" trade journal pub
lished in this city. corroborates those figures in
every essential detail, though it makes out a
rather larger surplus for the trust:
A @ laG to to ,C Charles Morses figures
M @ and tnd the ne od m crop m unit to 200 tons
purchase ha and the trusts holdings in Maine reach
2S5I0,O tons Now for the trusts second source
the river for the fact that twentS four OF of
old ice tons which Was erf e9 and Ka kdn
at at cost cost Of 80 cents ton The trust harvested on
100000 tons Aecqrdng President Morse rSea' the 4
W yd Is 10 Ss yts in This rbs WIN sup
leave $1,000 tons over Wherein does the short ortu
price 555 900 tons does not represent the total
Ge ae m Tsefny %Re6 T are few
knows of. and the amount can be doubled by pur-
Wood of Waterviet sold $4,000 tons s5n' 10 the @
us3 T 81 cep er s. 90 on ton "a 3 to tons & coming from Cohoes
Saratoga, at 81 30 a ton; 5000 tons from Keuka
Lake, and 100000 tons from Pocono and elsewhere
Here are easily 100000 tons, total of $50
tons 1t will be observed that all Of the ice bought
the trust to sen this for from s to 81 ton? mas
Bal,imore PhiIaqeiPha and washington t9ok POT lot
supplied by the artificial product These cities are
trust, after spending millions in buying natural
ice Pans found o ONE Thing that could not be
plants. 1t has nearly all those in New-York in its
pee a of s mad in to ed city pans the is g
than 81 10 ton and one plant makes Ice for cents
Because last year expensive one for the
trust, lot of money wasted and some one
back by taking it out of the poor people These
artificial adluncts of the trust, including Rupperts
total of supply is 100000 tons.
control of several artificial plants in this city. and
has formed company known as the Merchants
Of 100000. to acquire the obstinate rivals This
already & 5s0 has bought m sa Re Of Scott
held secretly for year 200 feet of waterfront
TS ~ cIea6 aaa ntN nS% tbs 49, The
ket but pier Ter m has been denied to them The trust
London but as the offer was not In cash it was
refused. The offer to the Bergen Ice Company, of
thanks The company is satisfied with present
profits and is selling ice at 50 cents hundred
od bey IS additional proof: In Mount Vern t
n st E elline Ice at last wears prine % Ihe
hundred. The trusts local manager declares that
this price will prevail throughout the summer
CONDEMNED BY IT'S OWN MOUTHPIECE
AS will be observed from the tone Of this ex-
tract Gold Storage is no friend OF the trust
but there is another trade journal published
here by the trust itself its organ and mouth
piece. This is called The Ice Trade Journal"