Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-06-08
THE TARIFF AND THE TRUSTS.

THE TARIFF AND THE TRUSTS.
! The views expressed by Congress
man Robert wv. Tayler, of Lisbon, O.,
before the Industrial Commission,
Thursday, are decidedly interesting,
even if not agreed to.
Mr.. Tayler held that trusts are harm
full, and gave cogent reasons for his
belief, but he was utterly opposed to
seeking to break them up by a reduc-
tion in the tariff, and held generally
that he knew of no remedy for the
existing state of affairs in the industrial
world
As to the growing disposition to re-
wise the tariff, the Congressman said
1t might hurt the trusts a little, but
the workingmen a great deal more
proposition which will be widely dis
scented from for the reason that the
compensation Of iron and steel work
ers is not fixed by the tariff but by
what the manufacturers are compelled
to pay through labor organizations. 1t
is undoubtedly true that wages in the
trust industries would Immediately de-
cline were the organizations of the
men to go out of existence, no matter
what the tariff might be; and 1t is
also true. that if the tariff were in
creased above the present level wages
would remain practically as at present,
for the tariff beneficiaries are very I'M
willing to divide up the profits they
are enabled to make from high prices
to the people.
Mr.. Tayler showed that he fully ap-
preciated the dangers of the trust sys-
tenn when he maintained that the for
nation of any combination that gives
men such great powers as is welded
by the heads Of the various trusts IS
menace ITO the people. Experience, he
said, shows that men having great
power will use it to the detriment o.
their fellows. He believes that the
formation of trusts is leading to the
spread of the doctrine of State social
ism. The mere fact that the trusts are
operated for the benefit of the few
causes people to speculate whether they
cannot be directed for the benefit of the
many.
He became somewhat grotesque, how
ever, when he held to the view that
the trusts gave a reciprocal benefit to
even the farmer, his argument being
that as the iron and steel combinations
paid out about twenty millions in
wages annually, the workmen We're en-
abled to pay more for farm products
and buy more of them than they other
wise would or could, and that this Off
set the increased cost to the farmer Of
manufactures needed by him. And al
most in the same breath he admitted
that two-thirds of the securities of the
United States Steel Company repre-
sent nothing but wind and water,
upon which the purchasing public
must pay profit to the holders,
thereby admitting an injury to the
many for the benefit of the few, and
towards the end he admitted that pos
sibly protection was responsible for
the formation and growth of some
trusts, ''just as the sunshine causes
weeds to grow"
Mr.. Tayfer's logic and deductions
will not commend themselves to the
intelligence of the country. The facts
in opposition are too plain and the
results too conspicuous to be explained
away in any such specious manner.
That the tariff begot the trust is the
general conviction, and that the trust
system is a public burden and against
the public interests las been and is
daily being clearly demonstrated. And
the best evidence of this last fact is,
that.whenever you scratch a trust man
you develop under his epidermis
strenuous hostility to meddling with
the tariff upon any pretext. He's for
the high tariff heart and soul because
he knows it is good thing for him,
and cares nothing. for its effect upon
others.
Nf H. ~.