River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1900-07-05
FREE-TRADE TRUSTS.
Particulars of Their Formation in
the United Kingdom.
Gen. Dick shows That Consolidation
of Interests Is Centuries Old
How Labor Has Combined
at Home.


In the house of representatives re-
Gently Gen. Dick, of Ohio, presented
some strong facts regarding the forma-
ton of trusts and combinations of cap
ital in England. He briefly covered
the history of combinations from the
time of the ancient Greeks and Ro-
mans, showing that trusts were crea-
lures of commercial necessity, and not
of protective tariffs.
Tracing the development of indus
try from the work of the individual.
then on to the formation of partner
ships, later of corporations, and still
more recently of the large combina-
tions, he showed that they existed in
England hundreds of years ago. Gen.
Dick claims that the combinations of
to-day are. after all. only corporations
on a large scale. They are changed in
size. but not in form. They are the
highest development of the centraliza-
tion idea manifested in capital and in-
dustry, and the evolution of modern
commerce and trade.
Gen. Dick Their proceeded to give a
list of some of the largest com bina-
tions that had been formed in Great
Britain in recent years. These con-
Germs had combined the businesses of
1928 different manufacturers, with
capital of 50,O00,oOO. The history of
each combination is given in detail,
showing the amount of stock, the
names and addresses of the constit-
uent companies. facts as to dividends,
earnings, output and profit and loss.
These include history of the British
salt trust, the alkali trust, all the diff
ferent forms of dry goods trusts, and
big trusts for supplying manufacturers
with coal and other such products.
Invariably the object of the British
trust is stated to be the avoidance of
competition, the reduction of cost in
shipment, economies in management
and increased efficiency. The facts
supplied are taken from the official re-
ports of the different companies, which
in England are available to stockhold-
ers upon the payment of a small fee,
but which information in this country
is guarded with the utmost secrecy.
Continuing, Gen. Dick said: Sin
word, free trade England has COM
pletely gone over to, and become i'm
toXicated with, the trust mania That
such combinations of capital in that
country are not the creation of
protective tariff is self-evident. Eng
fish laws compel the giving of i'm
formation to stockholders in cor
poration. Upon the payment of a
fee of one shilling (25 cents), they
can learn at any time the accurate
financial condition of the companies in
which they are interested. But there
is no such law in the United States,
and, in my opinion, there should be.
another point that is worth con-
sidering is this. We are now COM
PEELED, in striving for a share of the
worlds commerce, to make our goods
of such quality and at such a price
that we can compete with the manu-
features made by these English trusts.
And this competition will increase,
not decrease. In order, then, to keep
our factories busy, and to employ
our labor, which is the greatest con-
sumner of the products of our mines,
forests and factories, must not we
also adopt conditions similar to those
in vogue in that great industrial
country which has always maintained
its commercial supremacy in every
quarter of the globe.
Assuming that we must do this, /
believe in, and will advocate, the
proper regulation of all of our large
combinations of capital by law. We
must preserve in them whatever is
good and advantageous to the people
at large; but at the same time we
must eliminate all that is bad and
evil, and in any way calculated to in
terfere with the rights of our citi-
zens."
Following his discussion upon the
subject of trusts in free trade coun-
try, Gen. Dick took up the organiza-
ton of labor in the United States.
From official figures he showed that
the American Federation of Labor has
increased it's membership by 100000
or 100000 this year, issuing 1,50O To-
cal charters in that time. In 1899
the federation gained 225,OO0 in MEM
bership. He gives in detail the rela-
tive percentage of increase in member
ship in the years 1897, 1898 and 1899,
in each craft or trade.
He then quotes from three differ
ent statements made by Samuel
Gompers, president of the American
Federation of Labor, the years
1898, 1898 and 1899. These distinctly
show the distressful condition of the
members of the federation under the
democratic administration of Presi-
dent Cleveland. The second state
ment shows the improvement in the
condition of labor within year from
the time that President Mckinley was
inaugurated. The third quotation, at
the close of 1899, is a standing memo
rial to the benefits derived by Amer
lean labor under republican admins
tration and republican laws that are
designed to protect our wage-earners,
and enable them to secure the high
est possible rate of wages in return
for the labor which they have to
sell.
In conclusion, Gen. Dick says: at
is but right to state here that Mr..
Gompers, the president of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor, is now, and
always has been, an uncompromising
democrat His frank and unsolicited
testimony to the better conditions of
labor under a republican administra-
ton should, therefore, have some
weight with our friends on the
other side of the house. His words
speak volumes for republican policy
and republican administration. They
show clearly and without possible
room for doubt, that this admins
tration has made hives of industry out
of the democratic haunts of idleness."
Selling Goods Abroad.
Exports of American manufactures
compare thus:
1S95-Free Trade. 1900-Protection.