Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1906-04-12
GREEDY WOODEN TRUST
Grows Fat at the Expense of
the American People.
HIGH PROTECTION Is THE CAUSE

No Competition to Protect the Com
suIncrs, but the Tariff Protects the
Trusts-How Cotton and Shoddy Arc
Mixed With Wool For the Poor,
While the Rich Wear Innported
Woolens.
The American Wooden company-thc
WOODEN trust-which owns TWENTY-FIVE
Of the largest wooden mills in the
United States, has just made its an
nual report. The net sales for the wear
were S46,66O,449, an increase of $9.Oo7,-
6oo as compared with the preceding
year, and the net profits were $4,1Sl.-
l57, an increase of 81, 73S.S2T for the
same period.
After paying preferred dividends of
Sl,36o.l16 and charging to dcrrecia-
ton ~$l,3677,S37 there remain undivided
profits Of $1,S52,903. The total undi-
vided profits amount to S1O,O49,S2S.
This trust is so thoroughly protected
by the tariff on wooden goods that it
has been enabled to advance the price
of its products by the same percentage
as the protective tariff protects it from
foreign competition. When the wool
schedule Of the tariff bill is examined
it is found that, from the cheapest
WOODEN yarn, which is taxed 271a cents
a pound and 40 per cent ad valorem, to
clothing, ready made and articles of
wearing apparel Of every description"
the tax on which is II cents a pound
and GO per cent ad valorem, the total
tax ranges from so per cent to 175 per
cent or over. This enormous protection
prevents any goods that would compete
with the wooden trust from being i'm
ported and allows it to advance the
price of it's products to just about what
it would cost to import foreign made
goods with the tariff tax added.
The result Of this protection to the
wooden trust is that nearly everything
manufactured by it is adulterated With
cotton or shoddy, ard about the ouly
pure wooden goods Worn by the Amcri-
can people are imported and upon
which the enormous tariff tax is col
lectcd. There may be n satisfaction,
however, to those who can afford to
wear imported wooden clothing, when
they know that the tariff tax collected
goes to pay for the support of the gov
eminent. The chagrin Of those who
are compelled to buy the poorer quality
Of trust homemade goods, with their
admiXture Of cotton and other inferior
substitutes, and who from greater ey-
posture in working for their living have
more need for the warmth that all
wool clothing affords. when they Gis-
cover that the trust is charging them
over and above a fair profit, nearly
what the tariff tax would be as addi-
tional profit, is pathetic. SO it amounts
to this-that those who buy imported
wooden goods pay the profit for their
manufacture to the foreigner and in
addition the tariff tax to the govern
ment, while those who are compelled
to buy the homemade goods pay q
profit to the trust and al additional
profit-that is, all but as much as the
tariff taX-to the trust also.
If these tariff taxes, both that direct
~ paid to the government and that in
directly paid to the trust by the in
creased price of goods, We're collected
at the doors of the stores everywhere
by a tariff tax collector there would be
& revolt Of the American people against
such plundering taxation. Many PEG
pie, eve those who understand some
thing Of the Republican tariff system,
pay the tax without a murlnur, and w.
voting for Republican congressman
and electing legislatures who in turn
elect Republican United States sena-
tors they perpetuate the protective sys-
tenn, which fosters trusts to bleed
them.