The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-28

5 5 sHs sz LES w. THOMPSON.
 
 antitrust law, that this government of hcial was coereed by public sentiment into moving. And so this worthy official, whose duty 1t Is to see 70 the execution of the laws as he finds them on the statute books, was only constrained by this same public sentiment to move against the beef trust after the latter had run up it's prices on the necessities of life to so high pitch that the con- sumer, through the press, entered his protest in no uncertain tones. Without the meat they are clamoring for the con- sumers of the country. and are now being fed on such promises as future legisa- tion," etc.-according to the President and this by party which has had tits day in court" and done absolutely noth ing. Small wonder that the outraged con- science of long-suffering public must find voice in the following timely pro- test and warning uttered by the Record- Herald, Independent republican:
 '"rhe situation is intolerable, and if the republican party continues to trifie with it, to glaze it over, to rest content with panegyrics on republicanism and pros perity, while the robbery py the tariff bred trusts continues, there will be enough indignant republicans to turn the balance of political power in favor of the democrats. They may do so reluc- tantly but the kind of protection that is afforded by certain schedules of the pres ent tariff law will make them prefer any change to the continuance of such an outrage"
 RISE IN PRICE SIMULTANEOUS
 WITH AND THE INEVITABLE sE- | QUENCE TO THE MARKED
 GROWTH OR MULTIPLICATION l OF TRUSTS.
 I The industrial combinations popularly
 called trusts" are a development. of recent growth in the business world. Few people have any conception of the extent | of that growth in the number of trusts which have sprung up of recent years | and the tremendous extent to which | these combinations have steadily en- croached upon the business interests of ! this country and the nations of the world Stupendous indeed Is the volume of capital which these cormorants con- 1 trol in absorbing and throttling the bus ness of the world, particularly in our own country. This amount Is well nigh inconceivable and the results threatened are positively appalling. Their ramifica- tions have so far extended as to embrace l and absolutely dominate almost all the productive industries of mankind. You will be interested to learn the result of certain careful computations which have been made up bearing upon this subject, covering a systematic painstaking mar shalling and scheduling of all those com binations classed under the two heads of trusts proper, and "qna -i-trusts," re- ferring to or including local combines, pools, selling agencies. all kinds of traf- fic agreements between railways, insur- ance compa nies, express and telegraph and telephone companies and other as- sociations knitted together under what Is styled community of interest" As nearly as can be approximated from this laborious schedule as recently made up there are now in the United States 266 actual and genuine trusts" proper ex
 ercising absolute and complete domna- ton and monopoly in as many lines of 1 business and absolutely controlling the output or production marketing sales and prices of each industry or line of business so absorbed. These trusts vary | in size and importance-the fewest num- I Der scheduled representing less than at least one million of dollars of capital, while there are at least 100 or more which ] represent vast sums of money, usually divided into common stock preferred stock and bonds, and the lamentabe characteristic of these huge combines or trusts last named is that they control a complete monopoly of all the leading necessities of life Notably among many others may be cited that leviathan of colossal trusts. the stupendous ''steetl trust" with an aggregate capital cov- ering common stock. preferred stock, and mortgage bonds of $1.400.OOOC00 Has either one of you the faintest concep- tion of the colossal sum of money here represented? This gigantic combine has absorbed 99 per cent of all the leading steel corporations in the country. Let us consider what all this means? It means that by banding together all the steel producing plants tn the United States, the managers--few in number compara tively-can produce just as much or as little steel and the products of steel as they may elect can afford em- ployment to just so many laborers as they choose, can shut down or lock out these same iron workers whenever they please; can reduce wages at their own sweet will and can market only such quantity and at such times as they deem most profitable to them, fixing absolutely their own price thereon. In the event 1t turns out more goods than the home market can conveniently accommodate the trust can thereupon ship to foreign markets their excess, there fixing Gas they are doing today) prices to the for eign consumer far below the rates they are charging at home. The effect of such exporting of their surplus is to create an artificial scarcity at home, thus ena- bling them to command arbitrary prices from the American consumer. However, I will refer to this further on. Suffice it, the profits of this huge trust alone, cov- ering the past six months of the present fiscal year, have amounted to the sum of s64, 00O.000 or at the rate of the fab ulous sum of s125, 100000 per annum Next in importance, perhaps, because bringing closer home to the consumer than any other the crying evils of this , modern cormorant, comes the ''meat trust" Within the past few months, alarmed apparently at the show of judi cial prosecution instituted against them