Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-05-28

I
with some care into that remedy for
the abuses of the trust system which
the protective tariff provides? For
while It is true that out of the abun,
dance Of capital incident to these
seven years of plenty the opportunity
of the trust organizer has arisen, it
is also true that this very abundance
of capital in search of employment,
offering itself in market place where
the law of competition has been fight
ing for its life, has completely vindi-
Gated the whole doctrine of protec-
tion.
National Salt, A Trust That Failed.
Let us contrast for a moment the
remedy Of free trade with the remedy
of protection in the case of some
well-known American trusts. We may
take up for example the National Salt
company. The National Salt company
commonly called the salt trust, was
organized in the spring of 1899, and
within a year had sufficiently monop-
olized the salt business of the icoun-
try east of the Rocky Mountains to
claim in its published reports "a per
cent Of the entire output of evaporated
salt. It started out with a capital
stock Of $4,000, 900, five millions pre-
ferred, seven millions common, all of
it very damp. 1t had to do business
in a market place protected by tariff
law which for over a century had
operated to invite Independent capital
to embark in the industry; and the
question the trust had to face was
this: Would its size, its pretentions
to monopoly, the mere swagger of it's
intoxicated capital prevent others
from seeking the profits of that busi-
ness?
In a sense the National Salt COM
pany put the protective tariff system
on trial. Less than FIVE years have
passed, but already the theory of pro.
lection has come out of that trial per.
fectly vindicated by the unanswerable
finding of the market place. The salt
industry does not require an exorbi- !
tant investment to carry it on with |
success; money sufficient to bore
hole in the ground and buy fuel enough !
to pump the water and heat is all |
that is needed to start a salt factory |
wherever salt deposits are found. Is
It any wonder, Therefore, that the Ma
-ional Salt company should have
been compelled to add a new depart
nent to its business? A purchasing |
agent, to buy off competition; a per-
ormance so continuous that accord
ng to the decree of the court of equity
hat listened to their tale of woe in
he state which gave them their
charter it reduced them from appar-
ent solvency to unquestionable bank
ruptcy within a few months-liabili-
les one million five hundred thou
Sand; assets three hundred thousand
of wet salt.
To complete this comedy of mis-
we are not surprised
o see new promoters and new syndi-
,ates coming forward to gather up the
'emains, under the high-sounding
lame of international Salt company"
with vague plans and specifications
'or bringing under, one control the
salt works OF Canada, italy, Spain and
Great Britain, as we'll as of our own
II is astounding that a sane
nan could be found, after the Lord
las gTaciously located a reservoir OF
salt under the whole earth and an
ocean of brine all around II, to give
to a proposition to supply
he whole world with such a necessity
)f life, under the auspices of an in
corporation which starts
)ut with bogus capital of S42 600 000
/ large portion OF 1t set apart for the
profit of an Underwriting syndicate,
md its visible resources pre-empted
1y an Indebtedness of $4,000 900,
With neither a provision nor a pros
oect for even a preliminary payment
If interest
II there is room in our market place
or project like that, why did the
Post once department issue fraud I
lrder against the amiable clergyman
who boiled bushel OF pumpkin seeds
md began a profitable business career
1y advertising that while in the Holy
and he had secured limited number
If seeds OF the gourd mentioned in
Sacred Writ and was willing to dis
iribute them to devout persons at a
lollar apiece?
No Unlimited Coinage Of the Air.
insert a study Of industrial statis-
les made for the end of the year sum-