The Leon reporter., 1902-07-03
RIGHT WAY TO ATTACK TRUSTS.

/
and means reports on Congressman
Richardson's bill to take the duty off
goods controlled by combinations it is
hoped that it may read little different
~ as to what are trusts and combina-
tlons. AS it was referred, there is a
loophole of escape for the combines
The weakness consists in the fact that
the president and the secretary of the
treasury are to be the ones to decide
whether goods shipped into the country
from abroad are brought into compete.
ton with the products of trusts, or
whether they are sold side by side with
goods manufactured by firms with a
community of interests" There is a
doubt in the minds of many persons
whether president and his secretary,
through personal reasons, such as
friendship, the need of votes for them
selves or their party, or even because
they might own stock in some combina.
ton, would not close their eyes to the
facts, if they happened to be against
their own interests, and decide that
complaints under the Richardson bill
were not we'll founded.
In other respects the bill in question
is as good as anything of the kind in the
way of preventive or corrective measures
that has been proposed. The proper
way to strike at the trusts is undoubted.
ly through their treasures. If such cor.
porations have no souls, they have limbs
of some kind, or they could have no way
OF carrying their pockctbooks. Strike
at them through their pocketbooks,
then, and the chances are that you will
not only cripple them financially, but
you reach a vital part of their corporate
anatomy.
Z ,-0ne feature Of Mr.. Richardson's bill
is particularly strong. 1t is the section
that provides that the removal of tariff
from goods brought here from abroad,
when once begun, shall continue until
the trusts cease the manufacture of the
goods or the control of the prices of the
same. The exact language of the bill is
as follows:
s'That when it is shown to the salts.
faction of the president and secretary of
the treasury that articles and commod-
tiles are manufactured and controlled or
produced in the United States by a
trust or trusts, the importation OF such
articles and commodities from foreign
countries shall be free of duty until, in
the opinion of the president and secre.
tary of the treasury, such manufacture,
control or production shall have ceased.
That when it is shown to the satisfac.
ton of the president and secretary of
the treasury that any article or COM
modify which is manufactured in the
United States is sold in any foreign
country more cheaply than the price at
which the same article or commodity is
sold in the United States, the rate of
duty on such article or commodity shall
be reduced by the president and secre-
tary of the treasury so per centum of
eiiS PACoChV AolCS, VI W SuCL al GAtCuU
as to prevent the continuance of such
lrregularity and injustice, and remove
the indirect tariff bounty which pro.
duces the same"
Whether so per centum of the reduc-
| ton of the present rate of duty, made
at the discretion of the president and
his secretary of the treasury, would be
the proper figure or the proper way of
levying it, time and trial Of the prob.
lem alone could determine. Anyhow,
the passage of some such legislation
could do no harm, and it is hoped it
would result in great good. The chances
are, however, that some ingenious way
of circumyenting the law would not be
difficult for the well-paid attorney of
the trusts to concoct. The best way to
prevent trusts is to see that they are
not allowed to organize Pttsburg
, Post.
l stTha neonle will reioice as l1snal