The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-24

| reaching agricultural enterprises would | cause them bitterly and jealously to op- 1 pose threatening downfall of them;
 ''Txkt the public's unsuspecting tenden- cy is to look upon the mighty steel inter- ests as merely one of the fellow co-op- erating manufacturing industries with other manufacturing industries of the l country; .tr
 That with this common misunderstand- ing the present steel trust has enjoyed a | license that has allowed 1t to rise up as a mighty power for not only threatening and hazarding the success of all metal | using manufacturing in the United States | but even now to threaten the life and ex- istence of such factories; besides doing untold injury against the commercial suc- | cess and progress of our country in nu- merous ways;
 Advance in Price of Pig Iron. That these steel industries now own a large percent of our iron furnaces. and have caused the price of iron and steel materials to advance enormously since the forming of the steel trusts as one ex ample. the pig iron that was purchased a few years ago at from SIP to s14 and SIG is now costing us from sa4 to S26 and s2S. with many questionings and demands at these high prices that further tend to their net delivered expense.
 That whereas in recent years past we have been heretofre able to order our stock one month and to expect a delivery of the material the following month. that We are now required to order six. eight and ten months. and even longer ahead, for every class of these materials. thus compelling us to carry enormous high priced stocks for manufacturing pur- poses. or otherwise finding ourselves run ming out of many different requirements at the season of manufacturing.
 That the voice of competition for these materials has in every way been throttled. so as to take away from healthy manufacturing interests any and all of the advantages that were heretofre of- fered and terms that were previously req sonable and often favorable are now linn ited to net cash dealings alone. Arbitrary Exactions Made. That whereas. in the purchase of these materials in the past. 1t became a busi- ness transaction between two progressive interests. that now the agricultural i'm plement manufacturers (your petitioners>, when undertaking to buy iron or steel materials. which they. of course. must l have. are called upon to sign a contract of the trusts making alone. which the | trust demands signing. accepting all of their arbitrary ideas. exactions. etc. in- cludins their own prices and terms. and if our voice is in any way raised against one feature of their making we are told l that we can accept what they wish to of fer of do without these manufacturing ma terals.
 That this condition prevails in settle l nnents with the trust where, If any ques. tlonins voice Is raised as to any right that we may seem to have against their | injustice. we are told that we must waive any such rights entirely or otherwise the trust will not care to furnish us materi- als for manufacturing. and as nc other avenue IS open for purchasing these me- cessities our hands are completely tied to do their bidding.
 1 All Profits Destroyed. That these prices that we are required 1 to pay for these materials have destroyed l all profit whatever that existed in tho manufacture of agricultural implements. l That if we were to turn to the farmer l and dealer and demand upon our ma | chimes (required to offset the additional | demands of the trust as to their repeated | advances in prices of iron and steeD in
 undertaking to do so the farmer would
 plainly refuse to buy. preferring to rely
 upon doing his work by old crude meth ods until modern machines can be pur
 chased at a price that he has learned to look upon as reasonable.
 | That the sealers or merchants who
 are as middle I1en in selling machines to | the farmers. are none of them today con-
 ducting a profitable or successful busi-
 ness by reason of their having to pay a limited advance on the cost of their
 goods. and finding that they are compeli-
 ed to sell to the farmers in order to make sales at all. at a much lessened profit, so that as a result the retail business they
 have built up with patience and hard
 work is destroyed and continued failures in business among our customers are now fast multiplying.
 Running Export Business.
 That our export business in agricul-
 tural implements that had been fast be- coming a prosperous feature of our coun-
 try is now becoming lessened and dc. stroyed through our inability to meet the competitive prices of other countries, who are not so hindered and confined in the reasonable purchase of their materials:
 That with these facts to meet we are brought to face a condition of such ex- tremes that promise to hazard the sue cess of our busiiess, as the profit has be- come eliminated in the manufacture and sale of agricultural implements. both to the dealer and the export trade;
 That we believe If promoters of boy colts and strikes are unlawful. the lead CTS of trusts who threaten and imperil the success of the imprtant manufacturing interests of the country are equally so:
 That the agricultural implement man. ufacturers have been established upon what has always been previously consid- cred strong financial basis as healthy and permanent manufacturing institu- l tions, a pride of our country but are in no position now to coue with the condi tions here presented without the assist ance of the government;
 That this situation, we believe. must be looked upon as a direct thrust at the l farming interests of the country, as we'll as the agricultural implement manufac- turers, who have made modern farming possible in the United States;
 We must feel that the existing danger ous facts and conditions have not been fully understood by those in authority. or by the public in general.
 Secondary Trusts Necessary.
 That many combinations and second ary trusts have necessarily been formed under these trust conditions forcibly to raise the prices of manufactured products in order to offset the enormous increase in prices of iron and steel.
 That whereas. if these conditions were not met with, many of the manufactur- ing interests now formed into combina- tions and trusts would have most satis- factorily remained separate and individ- ual institutions to this day. with no thought of the combinations that they felt forced to make.
 Therefore your petitioners, extensive manufacturers of agricultural imple- ments in the United States of America.