Waterbury Democrat., 1902-05-02
MEAT AND OTHER TRUSTS.

The administration Is thoroughly alarmed over the possible effects upon
 the fall elections of the high prices of
 meat and the talk of a trust as the
 cause. This is made evident by At
 torney-General Knox's summary ac- tion in instituting proceedings against an alleged combination of dressed meat
 houses.~ It is stated that the depart
 ment of justice has secured evidence going to show that, while a formal
 agreement among the leading packers may not exist, there does exist con- cert of action in the buying of cattle,
 in securing special rates from rail- roads. and in marketing the product. This is to be considered welcome news, and the progress of the suit will be followed with intense popular interest
 It may seem ungracious to say that immediate political considerations move the government at Washington in this matter, but when hundred combinations of whose existence there is no doubt, have been operating on the people for several years without the slightest effort on the part of the
 government to restrain them, what other conclusion is possible? Evidence or a meat trust was just as plentiful year ago or six months or three months ago as 1t is to-day. There exists in the failure of the corn and forage crops last year legitimate cause fer much or the present rise in meat; and if the operations and increased, charges of any trust are to be winked at as hay ing basis on conditions over which the trust has no control, those of the supposed meat trust might reasonably De overlooked. But great public indig- nation is manifested in other cases. and Important elections are pending; so the government bestirs itself n per haps the most difficult of all combina- tlon cases to prove cause on behalf of the people.
 IL IS well to take such action. no doubt. and after all the best nf Wash 1ngton administrations are swaved by the political bearings of matters. Rnt haVlng moved in this case under the hitherto idle Sherman antitrust law. the administration must move against the other trusts all along the line if if would preserve any appearance of sincerity and consistency in the matte,. at all. There are trusts in operation much more openly and admittedly than tue supposed meat trust. There is the anthracite coal combination. whose extortions and manipulations are known to all, and are indeed Of CO., mon public record. There is the n1in- eral oil trust, whose monopoly, nlain- tained in devious ways, is known of all. and which arbitrarily marks up the price of oil and then pays 4S per cent dividends on a heavily watered capi- tal There is a steel trust, almost . matter Of national boast, which holds prices 10 per cent above normal: and the sugar trust, and the can. glass. leather rubber, paper, copper, cheni- cal, fruit, salt, starch. biscuit and many other trusts--all operating along lines profoundly affecting the cost of living. No doubt about their existence in any of these cases, and no doubt about their monopolistfc purposes and efforts. In not one of these cases IS competition, actual orr potential, as great force as is in the case of the meat. trust, which probably controls less than half the meat out put of the country. Government action under the antitrust law lies 10 more properly against the meat trust than against the others.-Springfi Re publican.