Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1903-01-31
Morgan and Morganisn1
what Is the Steel Trust?

ture beginning, and Of this he has only
succeeded In capturing portion, COM
petiton remains, and competition in
eyitaby must grow. Nothing can pre-
vent the development of the immense
mineral resources that yet remain to be
tanned In that country Of illimitable
rcher. The trust. II It Is to establish
a monopoly, has either to fight that
competition Is TO absorb IT, and to do
either rs ultimately impossible,
The steel trust has not put up prices.
II has had no occasion to try, indeed,
the tariff and the huge prosperity of
the country having accomplished that
for it. II has shared the high prices
along with all the business remaining
outside itself. But the time will come
when at least It will be necessary for
the trust to endeavOr 70 maintain
prices. Then the competition which the
present era OF prosperity has called in
to being will have TO be faced.
OF late there has ben certain modl-
fcation of the public attitude towards
trusts. A fewsyears ago the trust sys
tenn was a sort Of DOGGY vaguely hated
and feared. In the popular imgana.
ton IL was a gigantic beast Of prey
with horrid blood-gouted, Unsuitable
nav. Its feroclous nature and purpose
were to levy blood-mOney upon the
public by taxing the necessarles Of life
10 a point at which life would become
unllveabc. Bread and meat, coal and
iron the supply OF every commodity in
dispensable TO livelihood or life was to
be made the monopoly Of some gigantic
trust. which would put up the prices to
the uttermost limit Of the public capac-
ity to pay. There was apprehension OF
the time when beefsteak owing to the
operation OF a beefsteak trust, would
DO q guinea an ounce there was a car
toon In which a fearsome monster rep
resentlng a milkttrust was relentlessly
demanding the last drop Of the hearts
blood OF a supplicating mother as the
price OF bottle Of milk for her hunger
stricken babe.
The trust was regarded as a relent-
less and irresistible monopoly which,
having smothered all competition
would proceed TO assess values accord
ine, not TO the cost Of production, but
to the needs Of the helpless consumer
This terrified idea does not hold to-
..
possible of the workings Of trusts and
the wide thought which that oDserNa-
ton has suggested have to certain eN-
tent treasured the public mind. u has
come TO be recognized that even the
most powerful Of trusts is powerless IN
the presence Of the inexorable law OF
supply and demand. II IL recognized
that the two supposed objects OF a
trust-the extinction Of competition and
the extortion Of .eXtrayagant proflts
are mutually exclusive. To extort ex-
tfavagant prices means not only 2 cor
responding shrinkage In demand. but
an inevitable increase in competition.
A trust might start with all the VIII
In the world to put up prices to gold
value, but II must inevitably come to
look for enlarged profits in other d.
rections. In fact experience so far
goes TO show that the trust system
tends rather to cheaper prices than to
raise them.
Indeed information received today
from the United States shows that fully
three.fourths Of the increase IN steel
production during the last two years is
due to independent makers, II Is stated
in the best informed circles that the
trust now controls barely one"half OF
the steel output, whereas the popular
estimate at the period Of the formation
OF the trust allotted It IS per cent of
the total output In addition to this. the
price OF certain lines In steel has been
recently reduced, in spite Of strenuous
opposition from the trusts managers,
and this again is due to the competition
OF the Independent mills.
The steel trust. then, Yields no magic
powerIt can neither establish monop-
oily nor regulate prices, except to its
own hurt It Is just big business
which has TO go out into the market
and compete with other big businesses
The only difference Is that II has a
hugely inflated capital. 1t acquired the
constituent businesses at a very high
valuation, and Il asked from the public
"A valuation so high as only TO be justi-
fed by the assumption that good trade
and high prices are to last In the Unit
ed States for ever
But on the stock exchange It's 100
dollar preference shares which were Is
sued. 1t is believed, at about 80, are
quoted at ssh.