Waterbury Democrat., 1902-01-25

l ~NPAeNAs HIS SC LILY lu-
 ed into $216.412.759 of bonds. $1, ,066- I 525, 1863 of preferred stock and S1, ,SO2,- 262, ,146 of common stock Thus the
 actual capital is a little more than
 equal to the par value of the bonds
 and preferred stock. But it is to be
 noted that the census inquiry, i'll get ting at the true capital confined atten-
 tion to manufacturing plants, while
 some of the combinations, as in iron
 and steel and paper, embrace mining, transportation and forest properties l covered by their capitalization, but not figuring in this statement of actual capital. Thus the relation between actual capital and issued capitalization is to be considered as somewhat closer than appears in the figures. The ex l tent of trust imitation here revealed is I smaller than is commonly estimated. Valuations of plant are, of course, ob- tained from the trusts
 1 But imitation is pronounced enough, even in this exhibit For example, 1 the report covers 40 combinations in I the iron and steel industry, whose to- 1 tai actual capital Is given as $341, ,779,-
 9D4, not including the Carnegie com pany. The United States steel cor 1 pOratiOn took in not over 10 of these combinations, and issued securities l thereon amounting to about S1 ,000, ,O00.- GOO, the Carnegie company again be-
 ing excluded. Thus there is an out standing capitalization in this case
 alone of a billion dollars for only | fraction of the plants whose aggregate 1 valuation in the census report is given as less than S350, ,0O0,OO0
 l This official inquiry regarding trusts l is extremely limited, and gives only l faint idea of the extent to which com l bination has taken hold of industry in I the United States The investigation
 was undertaken in the midst of the
 movement, and a period most prolinc I of trusts has followed the date of the
 census inquiry. Nevertheless, the is- l sued capitalization of the manufacture 1 ing combinations existing early in
 1900 equaled about one-ha1f of the to- 1 tai amount invested in all manufac- lures i'll the United States as reported
 by the census of 10 years ago.
 1 POSTAL TELEGRAPH SERVICE.
 Albert B. Chandler, chairman of the
 board of directors of the Postal Tele- I graph company. in q recent issue of the I l Our own government, should it
 take the telegraph lines, would be at
 a considerable advantage over private
 corporations It would be no great matter for the government to establish
 a greater uniformity of rates, and to
 fix tolls on a basis so low as to be i'm
 possible of attainment by private cor l pOrations. The idea of Hat rate re- l o1r 1 af ;C+o l tions, such as now prevails on letter
 postage, it would probably never be
 able to carry out, but it is quite con- ceivable that the government could re- l duce the classifcations to say, four or
 five, on which it might perhaps fix
 minimum rate of fifteen cents and
 maximum rate of fifty cents for ten words, though we have no data by which any definite figures can be laid | down. The government could econ omize in many ways that are not open
 to a private corporation. It could | wipe out the item of taxation which.
 in many places, is now most burden | some and unreasonable. It could have
 the right of way everywhere, at little
 or no cost, whereas the private corpor-
 ation must pay dearly for such rights. | AhC SOA VI AAAACAI FCOulO OSG tue pOSC- offices for telegraph stations. thus avoiding large expenditures for rental.
 Having no competition it could natur-
 ally reduce the number of offices with out bringing any hardship on the peo- l pie.
 "As an example of what could be
 done by the government in this direc- l ton, I may mention the island of Man. | ha ff1r 117,c4 icn 4f,1 l Postal Telegraph company maintains
 hundred offices; the Western Union probably maintain twice as many.
 That means that rent must be paid for l three hundred offices; that three hun ] dred office managers must be engaged; and many other employees maintained. The same amount of business could
 easily be done in much smaller num-
 Der of offices without occasioning in-
 convenience to the public. The gov
 ernment would have to earn no divi- dend on the invested capital if the
 business should be carried on as the | postoffice business is, and claims for
 damages would probably be treated as | they are by the telegraph administra- 1 tions in Europe-that is, they would
 not be recognized and no responsibil- l ity in money would be assumed.
 Under government. control, telegraph
 business would probably be increased, and so would the demand for experts in the business Economizing as it could, the government would almost
 of necessity reduce the present tolls. and thus stimulate an increased use of telegraph facilities. People would learn to use the telegraph wires al- most qG freely aS thny lSp tba mails 1 now"