The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-07-03
TARIFF TRUSTS
ARE RUINOUS.
What Has Been FOrcasted Has
Come to Be a Fact.
MILLS HAVE CLOSED DOWN.
And Men Have Been Thrown Out OF EN-
ploymept by the Lack of Competi-
tion-A Well Presented Ar
raignment.
BY HENRY w. LAMB.

By w. LAND.
The series of articles upon Tariff
Trusts was completed recently by col
lection of opinions publicly expressed by
eminent Republicans, demanding the
removal of protective duties which fos-
ter monopoly. 1t remains only for me
to add q few words Of comment, sum-
ming up on behalf Of the New England
Free Trade league, which edited the
series.
The writer's OF these article set out to
prove the connection between protec-
ton and trusts, rather than to discuss
the whole trust question; and they have
made out q clear case.
These writer's proved in specific cases
the extortion practiced by trusts whose
products were directly protected by the
tariff, but 1t was not possible to follow
out all the relations of these trusts
TO others. When tariff trusts extort
high and arbitrary prices for galvaniz-
ed iron, for steel sheets, hoops or wire,
or for tin plates, those who control the
production of the inferior articles which
can be substituted mark up their prices
also. So long as protected duties ena-
BILE those monopolies which make ma
| chinery and other finished products to
bear with the extortions of the trusts
which control the materials they use.
1t is often in such hidden corners that
the protective tariff becomes the mo
ther of Trusts" and, while some Of
these children Of protection are en-
couraged to steal by their mother, 9TH
ers are unwillingly driven into combin-
alton in self defense against the favor
ed ones.
In addition to the difficulties arising
from the involved and complicated re-
lations of tariff trusts, there are the
difficulties of obtaining information
In most cases those who know either
will not tell, or else try to deceive. In
other cases, however, it is possible to
secure information and fortunately
these instances are of such prominence
that they furnish overwhelming evil
dence of the extortion in which the
trusts and the protective tariff are
partners. Although 1t Is not possible
| therefore, accurately to measure the
extent of the tariff trust extortions, any
more than we can measure the danger
of filth and bad drainage to health, it
is plain enough in both cases that the
evils exist and that their prompt re-
|
| the air.
| The statements made in the leagues
series of letters have already been JUS
titled in so marked a manner that at
tention may we'll be called to one or two
of the instances. On January 9, 1900,
the league published an article on the
American Steel and Wire company, in
which it called attention to the evidence
| haf
were checking industrial enterprises.
The letter closed with this prediction:
But the wage workers will more full
ly appreciate the benefits of this trust
when demand for it's product falls off
greatly and when it's attempts, by clos
ing mills and restricting production, to
maintain high prices and pay dividends
on its highly diluted stock. Such a
time will surely come"
The time has already come, as every
intelligent reader of newspapers knows.
In the middle of April the trust sudden
ly announced the closing of twelve
mills, whose estimated capacity was
1000 tons daily, their managing direc-
tor giving poor business and accumu-
lated stocks as the cause. Those inter-
ested in other iron and steel trusts We'd
|
what they termed "reprehensible con-
duct" Within a week a meeting of the
directors of that company admitted
the truth of his confessions by making
a cut of about 30 per cent in the trust S
price on nails and wire.
While this reduction was enough to
bear out the league demonstration that
the tariff trust extortions were a seri-
| ipi httr
den upon the consumers, it. soon re-
ceived support from other metal trusts.
Quotations on steel billets, which had
dropped from s39 ton in November to
$33 by April 1st last, have since fallen
to $2S, while prices of wrought iron pipe
have been reduced at least 25 per cent
the last two months.
In another place the league ridiculed
the claim put forward by protected
trusts that their effect would be "a
steadiness of prices" and the ridicule
has been signallv justified. The Iron
Age said Of the Steel and Wire trusts s
cut in prices, "It is believed to have
been the longest horizontal reduction
in the history of the iron trade" But
as other steel interests have since al
most matched it it is evident that in
practice the protected trusts do not re-
suit in IA steadiness of prices" On the
contrary, open competition would tend
to steady them and prevent violent
fuctuation.
The events which justify the league S
position are by no means confined to
the iron and steel trusts. The lead
trust has reduced its prices on pig lead
by sudden and arbitrary drops. 1t was
$4.75 per hundred pounds on May 4th.
Ten days later 1t was s4.05, and early
in June 1t fell to 1915. The protective
tariff, which excludes foreign lead, en-
abled the lead trust to extort such a
price as $4.75 and prevented the compe-
tition which would have regulated the
price naturally.
But all these reductions, however
tardy or violent, at least t4nd to relieve
the people from extortion and remove
the cloak under which other trusts are