The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1904-10-14
The Irvine Trust.

some interesting facts in connection with
the manipulation of the price of binder
Irvine by the trust, with the assistance of
powerful ally, which may lead to some
hard thinking on the part of our farmers
those most vitality interested in this par
ticular product of the trust. This little
bit of commercial history shows how it is
possible for these large corporations to
ruin competitor by unlawful practices
and yet not be brought to justice.
This order of things, in so far as the
railroads are concerned, which played
such prominent part in the little game
of squeeze, could be entirely changed by
government ownership and control. But
if party worship is permitted to warp the
intelligence of men in the investigation
and discussion of this and similar great
economic questions which are slowly but
surely pushing their way to the front,
and will ere long completely overshadow
the threadbare tariff and like political
make believes, which are SO successfully
used over and over again to divert the
attention of the people in political cam
paigns, then will there be no improve
ment in the conditions which are grad
ually tightening on all sides and making
the struggle for existence harder and
harder for all but those few Captains of
industry" who are at the head of these
gigantic corporations, whose influence is
felt by every legislative body in the land
and is powerful enough to defeat any
measure intended to restrict their opera
ton. What is needed is an intelligent,
non-partisan discussion and clear under.
standing of these questions before the
dawn of brighter epoch will break upon
this trust owned country. The follow ng
is an extract from the article referred to
above:
Zone Of the objects of the organization
of the Farmers Alliance was TO prevent
the robbery of the farmer by the Amer
lean Irvine and Cordage trust. In order
to do this. the Alliance decided to man.
ufacture Irvine and sell it to members at
cost. After they started the business, the
movement resulted in the reduction Of
the price of Irvine from an average of Id
cents to cents pound during the years
1867, these being the last years the AL
lance conducted this business. Why did
it close? Because of the dishonest trans.
portation system that Disseminated in
favor of the Irvine trust in the way of re-
| bates. The railroads entered into an
agreement with the trust to carry its
products free, and to charge extortionate
| freight rates upon Irvine made by the
Alliance. This enabled the trust to
undersell its competitor. The Alliance
was left with a great quantity of Irvine
| that could not be sold at cost, and it was
| thus driven out of the business. Imme.
| diately after the Alliance was driven from
the field. Irvine jumped to about ID cents,
where it has remained as stable as the
gold standard The agricultural reports
| show that the American farmers are
heeced out of twenty million dollars an
nually by this one trust, aided and
abetted by the railroads.
SIN 1898, when Irvine settled back at
| the trust rate of ID cents, the monopo-
| listic press was asked why the market
price of Irvine was so high. The ready
answer came that Dewey was bombarding
Manila, and we could not get hemp
However, somebody has been lombard
ing Manila ever since. The truth is, that
the Irvine trust is bombarding the farm
ers through the railroads. Ifthe govern.
ment had owned the railroads. the ALI
ance would still be in the Irvine business
and farmers could still purchase Irvine al
six cents pound. thus saving to them in
| the past five years one hundred million
| dollars in the purchase of Irvine alone. -