The weekly true Democrat. (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1905-1912, 1907-08-16
WHO WOULD PAY
FINE IMPOSED
Money wln Cams Fson Profits On
btl.

money Walk 49, hH~4 HSenNA %
Oh.
A special Washington correspondent
10 Tampa Evening News from Wash
ington, dated August II, has the follow
ing:
After the spectacular effect of fning
the Standard OH Trust nearly thirty
millions Of dollars has subsidized it may
be well 70 investigate what advantage
the public will gain, even il the trust
eventually has 20 pay the full amount.
John ID. Rockefeller ID reported to have
said that Judge Lands will be dead a
long while before this fine is paid In
fact, many things viii happen before
that" But suppose the chief trust
magnate is not q good prophet, and in
the course Of year the Circuit and Su.
preme Courts decide that the enormous
fine is legal and must be paid Z Where
will the money come from but from the
profits on oil, and Is i not quite proba-
BILE that a cent or two more 3 gallon
will be charged the public, 30 that the
trusts stockholders can still be paid
their ~ per cent dividend :
The object Of trust busting is TO re-
produce competition, which the trusts
have nearly eliminated. Competition
brings down the price Of products to q
natural level according TO supply and
demand, while trusts, through monopo-
", create an artificial price. Filming
trusts for receiving rebates, as in the
Standard Oil cases, will not reduce
prices, but II our trust-busting Repuh-
iican friends really mean business they
can, when Congress meets, very quickly
produce competition IN all trust pro-
ducts by abolishing the tariff duty
which protects them The Republican
leaders have been constantly pointing
out 70 those not convereant with the
tariff that all petroleum products are
on the free list.
That Is true = but at the same time
they know, or should know, that there
is q reciprocity joker In the tariff pack,
which they all voted for, which effect
ually protects the Standard OH Trust
from competition abroad. This proviso,
which Is part Of paragraph 626, which
places petroleum, crude or refined, :"
on the free list, also stipulates that
on petroleum, or lie products, 'pro-
duced IN any foreign country" there
ahal be collected, when such goods are
imported, . duty equal 70 the duty inn
posed by such country. As Russia and
other important oil-prOducing countries
levy duties on kerosene averaging about
100 per cent, it follows that the Stand
ard Oil Company is one Of our most
highly-prote trusts. The custom
officials hold that t ,e rate Of duty 20 be
assessed are not those levied by the
country from which the refined products
may be imported, but those levied by
the country which produces the petrO-
leum from which the imported products
were made.
That the trust Is enormously pro-
tected by this tariff provision is evident
from the difference In price as quoted
in the New York Journal Of Commerce
August 3, the export price in bulk be-
ing cents q gallon, while the local
price for tank-wagon delivery was 10
cents q gallon. So under this bench
cient Republican tariff the foreigner Is
buying his kerosense at bargain prices,
or about half what our trust-ridden
people are forced to pay through the
collision Of the Republican leaders and
the trust monOpolists.
About every prominent Democrat
from the South that drops into wash
ington these days is anxious TO see a
Southern man named by the Democrats
for President, provided the delegates to
the National Convention from the close
and doubtful States are satisfied that
such candidate would best unite the
party.