Omaha daily bee., 1909-05-31
Tariff and Trnsts.

The persistently cultivated Bryan
tie doctrine that the tariff Is the
mother OF trusts and that all that lie
necessary TO kill off the trusts Is to
tut trust-made products on the free
list IL beng rudely jolted in the de-
yeiopments of the tariff revision in
srugress in Washington.
We hear so much OF a sugar trust
that 1t Is = fair assumption that by
far the larger part OF the sugar tInde
In this country is controlled by n big
corporation. And vet the development
Of the beet sugar industry in the west
and the protection OF the zane grow
ing interests in the south are respon-
sible for the demand for the retention
OF safely protective duties in the
sugar schedule. They insist that put
ting sugar on the free list would not
only fail to extinguish the sugar trust
but by leaving it's competitors unpro-
tected would weaken them, IL not kill
them off, and without their rivalry
llt Sukdl II ubl WOulh OC ~ ~ hAAs
entrenched than ever.
In the matter of the oil schedule, a
similar situation Is presented, the
clamorous objections to removing the
tariff from crude and refined oil COM
ing not from the Standard Oil, but
from the independents who declare
that such a course would be ruinous to
them. 1t has been charged that these
Independent producers are merely
masked agents Of the Standard Oil,
but the refutation comes from a source
that will hardly be questioned. A let
ter written by Ida NJ. Tarbell is
quoted In Golfers as follows:
There IL no question in my mind of the
entire independence OF the oil producers
and the oil refiners who are now in Wash
ington petitioning congress for a duty on
crude oil. I have known many of them
all my life and am more or less familiar
with their business careers. AS to their
contention that free crude oil would be a
serious handicap to them in their competi-
ton with the %tandard oil company and an
advantage to the Standard, they are un-
~doubtedly right. II Mexico turns out the
tremendous oil producer that oil men are
predicting. II the field does not develop as
they seem to think it will. there is nothing
in the world for them to fear from crude
oil. AS you know, l am, myself, a thor
ough believer in free raw materials, in
cludin~ oil, and I wish tina the Independent
oil men felt that they were in a strong
A0ntl0H nnof4tnn tn rial froa NrtIdo oil
The oil trust, like the sugar trust, is
plainly less concerned with tariff
charges than are the independent pro-
ducers, who o have ali they can do
to hold their own and with free oil
would have to meet a still cheaper
source OF supply.
The democratic platform promise
Of free trade in trust controlled pro-
ducts lie plainly demonstrated to be in
adequate as a remedy for trust evils,
and it is not to be wondered that the
democrats in congress have not even
proposed to apply it. AS Golfers in
Inmates, in its comment on the Tarbell
letter, there should be some more
direct means of dealing with monopoly
than through the tariff" 1t must be
remembered, too, that enormous trade
combines operate in fields that have
nothing whatever to do with tariff du-
ties. The problems OF the trust are
not to be solved simply by tearing
down all tariff barriers.