The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-26
BUT THE rnusrs rIounIsH.

The Kansas City Journal iss somewhat
 disturbedb over the meat trust, and also
 at the unweIcome knowledge that the
 Republican Party is largely responsible
 for the formation and existence Of trusts
 generally. It has tried to maintain that
 there is no beef trust in existence, but in
 its issue of Tuesday 1t says:
 For the past week the newspapers of
 America have been discussing the beef
 situation with great vigor. If statements
 made by many of them are susceptible
 of proof there can be no doubt of the ex-
 istence of a beef combine for the purpose
 of fixing prices. It Is alleged in New
 York that beef advanced there l3 per cent
 in one week while the price of beeves in
 Chicago remained the same Bradstreets declares that the price of American beef in London is as low as the price of the same beef in New York. If this beef is sold in London at a profit, there Is no economic law that will account for same prices for the same beef in America, ard we must conclude that high prices here are enforced by an oppressive monopoly such a monopoly as the Republican statutes seek to prevent
 Whether "the Republican statutes seek to prevent the existence of trusts Is a question that need not be argued. for the fact remains that almost every in- dustry. business or occupation, and almost every necessary of life is covered and controlled by a trust of some kind. What the Republican statutes seek to prevent" is one thing, and what they fail to prevent Is another.' It matters not, so far as the people who suffer are concerned, what the statutes are. so long as they are not enforced and so long as the people are ground down in spite them If the Republican Party, which is now | in undisputed power, can put down the combinations which are enhancing the cost of practically everything. and does not do it the people are certainly not | benefited by that power.
 But The Journal tries in this manner to shift some of the blame from the Republican protected trusts:
 In considering the beef situation, how ever, it is well enough to remember that all of the advance in slaughtered cattle is not due to trust forming. The price of cattle on foot is higher today than | it has been in twenty-five years. with possibly single exception. The cost I of producing meat has been increased enormously by the short corn crop of last year. It may be, too, that the stock growers and feeders are making larger profits.
 In another portion If the same editorial The Journal enlarges on the assumption that the beef trust is not altogether | blameable for high prices, but that part of the blame must rest on the higher | prices charged by the cattle owners, ane that another part is due to increased de mands and decreased production. The Journal certainly does not take the cat | tie raisers and cattle owners for 1oois
 They were not the first to put up prices
 hut when they found that the combine
 had advanced prices they naturally foi | lowed suit. If there were to be higher
 prices the parties of the first part wanted
 a share of the profits and no one car
 blame them
 | All the spacious argument that can b'
 made will not remove the fact that there 1 is a beef trust, or the further fact Una | since the Republican Party has hao
 control of the government trusts nave multiplied and fiourished as never before
 What dependence can be placed on th' Republican statutes which seek to proven trusts is shown by the fact that trusts | exist and the people suffer.