The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-10-02

it can threaten and dictate rebates to the
| railroads.
Now, there may be trusts which do
| murderers who don't succeed in killing
| any body. If so, they are trusts which
have failed of their purpose, and which
Will sooner or later dissolve. because as
/ trusts they are failures. Why can
trust sell at higher price than the con-
stituent corporations could? Plainly, be-
cause the constituents are no longer COM
peting with one another for the custom of
the consumer who was protected from
robbery before the combination by the
competition of the clashing self-interest
OF the companies He is now subjected
to robbery by the absence of competition,
because of the common interest of all
the consolidated companies. Can any mer-
end, as the result of this power, be a
'benefcent' merger, good trust?"
An instance of how the trust system
works, In eXtorting unreasonable prices
in the American market, can be seen in
the operation of the steel trust in selling
rails to our railways. 1 say in the Ameri-
can market, because no aggregation of
wealth has yet been found powerful
enough to accomplish for a length of time
equal to twice a sea voyage the purpose
of arbitrarily raising prices to the con-
sumner in the worlds market, or in a free
market. The consumer there is protected
from arbitrary robbery by the number
OF those who must compete for his trade,
and by the financial and legal imposSi-
bility of combining their interests on a
scale OF such magnitude. Hence it is that
when the American steel trust sells rails
in Canada or Mexico being forced to sell
only at a reasonable profit, it lays them
down to the purchaser at from $40 to $21.
But in America, where under the shelter
of the tariff. it is protected from the
operation of the world law of world sup
ply and demand. it lays them down to
other purchasers, or even to the same pur-
chasers, at from $2S to $29. Here is a
difference of 81 per ton. On a basis of
sol fair nfipa returning q raa 10
profit, this is an extortion. in the Ameri-
can market of 81 ton, or of 80 1-3 per
cent.
Not Fancy Picture
In passing will say it is a curious CO.
incidence that the tariff on steel rails is
seven dollars and eighty odd cents. Who
pays this extortion of SO 1-3 per cent? The
railroads? In the first instance, yes; but
not in the last instance. They shift it, as
they must in order to do business at a
profit. to the farmer, the miner, the
lumberman and the merchant 1t is the
plebeian James, who pays the freight
out of which the transportation companies
must earn dividends to constitute rea-
sonable interest on the amount invested
in their plants.
Is this a fancy picture? No The steel
trust meets world competition in the
world markets and boasts that 1t can
continue to do so with increasing profit
but fact that it charges the Canadian
Pacific and the Mexican National railroad
companies $40 to SCI per ton while
charging the Union Pacific and the North
ern Pacific and the New York Central, for
so much of their lines as operate in the
United States, $2S to 500 a ton.
This is protection for American indus
tries with a vengeance. Thus the tariff
and the trust under it's shelter rob the
shipping public. Our Republican friends
know all this as well as we do, and have
known it for these many years. They
| years. Why have they not welded the
| power? Are you fools enough to expect
friends of the abuse? And per contra. If
they be. not the friends of the abuse, why
| have they not remedled it? Who be-
leyes that If duty on rails were reduced
| 30 per cent OF 70 per cent, American pro-
! ducers of steel rails would sell one ton
! bered that. they have been for years
| selling in the worlds market in compe-
/ tition with Germany, Great Britain, and
everybody else? But 1 can tell you what
| cheaper.
The state of affairs have described
| concerning steel rails exists also with re-
gard to steel nails. barbed wire, agri-
cultural implements structural steel for
bridges and houses. boots and shoes,
sewing machines, monographs, and a
great many other things too numerous to
mention at this time. In all of these
things the American producer is meeting
the worlds prices in the worlds markets
5and extorting from the American con
sumner IN the American market.
Protected All Around
Thus it is that some OF our manufac-
] ton in the American market by the tariff.
and from domestic competition with one
| another by the unhindered formation of
trusts All Of which IS in logical pursu-