The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1902-10-16

trusts take down the tariff wall and let in COM
petition
Mr. Wilson said
asuch combinations as our trusts in the
prime necessaries Of life which produced by
no one people, but freely in many countries. can
be formed only in a country that surrounds its
producers with wall Of protecting duties against
supplies from without"
The series Of articles in the Sun 10 which Mr..
Shaw referred. written by Mr.. Wilson, furnished
the clearest exposition Of the whole trust evil
which perhaps has ever been written Mr.. Will
son had before him the testimony concerning the
trusts which be discussed, given before com
mittee OF congress which had made searching
investigation OF four Of the principal trusts.
From this testimony he compiled history OF the
Standard Oil trust. which attracted the attention
Of the country The Standard oil company was
enabled by receiving secret rebates from the
railroad companies IN excess Of the rebates grant
ed 20 other oil re6neries. to drive all its rivals
ont Of business and compel such as they wanted
10 combine with them. The testimony before the
committee Of congress showed that this excess
Of rebates paid by single road 20 the Standard
Oil company amounted in a year to $4,000, 600.
The method OF forming combine adopted by the
Standard Oil company OF Ohio gave 10 such
combines the name OF trusts q name which
} still clings 10 them although the method has
been changed to more simple and at the
same time more effective After the Standard
oil company had conquered all of its rivals il
maintained the various conquered corporations
intact, but caused the holders of the stock in all
OF them TO deposit their stock in trust with a
board OF trustees. These trustees were selected
by The Standard. They voted all the stock Sc
lected all the directors Of the various companies
and dictated their policies the directors being 10
fact more than dummies, the real governing
body of all the associated corporations being
/ the board Of trustees. Later on this mode OF
combination dropped and was succeeded by
several new methods which are now in vogue
OF one of these methods the United States
Steel Corporation is a type. That corporation,
with enormous capitalization, purchased most
of the principal steel works of the country and
now this one concern manufactures about one.
| half of all the steel produced in the United
States, and thus controls the home market while
high protective tariffs shut out foreign COMPETE
ton Another type of combine is that OF which
the Northern Securities company is an example.
This is corporation with great capital stock
which is employed in the purchase of the capital
stock of other corporations. II can thus control
and practically combine the corporations OF which
1t possesses majority OF the capital stock In
this way number OF competing railroads in the
Northwest have been consolidated, and the law
Of several States which prohibits such consolida-
nation is the community of interest plan" By
this plan a single influence will purchase a con-
trolling interest in the stock OF various corpora
tions and dictate a common policy for all the
corporations it controls. This is similar TO the
Northern Securities plan, but it is accomplished
without the intervention of controlling cor
poration. It is by this plan that the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad company the Baltimore and Ohio
and other railroads which were formerly compel
ing lines are now operated tremendously Other
combinations are made by simple agreements to
act together