The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1902-10-11

Report .; the Steel Trust.
The regular quarterly report Of the
steel trust was made October I. The
net earnings for the past three months
are $50, 64,643. AT the same rate
the net earnings for a year would be
sl47, O5s, 572 This is said to be a
sum greater than all the surplus
products Of Missouri amount to. No
man should grudge the prosperity Of.
another man, or firm or business, pro-
yided that prosperity is legitimate.
Frantic talk about trusts aud corpO-
rations merely because Of their size or
wealth is nonsense not to be tolerated.
But what are the facts. The plants
which united to form the steel trust
cost and we're worth S240, 600, 900.
The incorporators on forming the
trust issued bonds to the amount of
1894, 500, OOO-a sum a little more
than one and one half times the total
value of the plants comprised in the
trust. So that if all their property
bad been blown to atoms with dyna-
mite the next day the incorporators
would have been on this count alone
1924, 800, 900 ahead. But instead Of
Incorporating the trust at its cost
value it was incorporated at 81, AGO.
900, 900, a sum six times as great, a
sum one and one half times as great
as the total assessed valuation of all
the property, real and personal-rail-
roads, banks, trust companies, mines
and all-in Missouri. Much Of this
stock, like the bonds, was sold, aud
every holder of this stock or these
bonds is interested in p%erpetratiug
the protective tariff and its agent, the
republican party. Carnegie tried to
give the government $40, 600, 900 of
these bonds as endowment for a
national university, doubtless believ-
ing that this would influence some
sentimentalists whenever tariff
schedules were attacked. The trust
sells steel rails, for Instance, at 1913
per ton in this country; 1t sells the
same in England at $22 per ton. If
it sold at S22 per ton IN this country
it would still be able to make a rea-
sonable dividend upon its true CAPT
taliEation--s24O 5000, 900. 1t would
have to sell at this price if it were
not for the protective tariff. 1t has
paid 10 per cent upon its fictitious
capitalization. If under free trade it
we're to pay 10 per cent upon its true
capitalization, the difference would
be SIG, 900, 900. We may fairly say
then that this SIG, 600, 900 is the
amount taken by law every year from
some people and given to other peo-
pie. And since a sum like this is hard
to comprehend, it may make it clearer
to say that this sum annually taken
by law from consumers and given to
the steel trust is greater than the
total revenue of Missouri since IL was
admitted to the union in 1S20-a sum
40 times as large as the total revenue
Of Missouri 10 1900. And this is the
record Of only n trust. And this
trust does not include all the steel
manufactures in the United States.
When one considers that steel maxi
ing is only a Of the great industries
of this country and not the most
highly protected Que, when one con-
sIders that the stock holders and bond
holders of these great corporations
and the banks that have lent money
upon these securities, when one con
slders the number Of the beneiciaries
OF this robbery and the amount of the
benefit, he must realize that the
destruction Of the protective system
is going to be hard to accomplish, il
it can ever be accomplished at all. Yet
J it is robbery, and robbery with less
excuse than the ravaglngs of Genghis
Khan.