The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-05-25

vi q PAIR OF man S shoes 1t
IS from four 10 five cents. In a fac
tory turning out a thousand pairs a
Gay OF the former there is a royalty
OF So a day. The writer has talked
with one shoe manufacturer who
claimed he had paid $165.000 a wear
III royalties 70 the trust and upward
OF SlUO,uUO tor materials. Many would
be independent manufacturers claim
they could reduce the cost of manu-
Ldclufe TWO cents a pair ii allowed TO
own Their machines. 1t is a. common
assertion among them that the royal-
Ties Tor the Rfst year pay a reasonable
prlce for the machines. That as the
life OF a machine is ten years. there
are nine years of "unholy profits to the
trust!' While discomfort at the be
nevolent despotisrn" which rules the
business breaks out all over the coun-
try IN spots. and several energetic at
tempts are making to build UP indie
pendent systems, the shoe manufac-
tUlers as a body have accepted the
combination. Certainly they are get
tiHe from 1t such a service as they
never had before. whatever the OPP
pre-: s1On and into the merits of their
col plants we do not propose 10 go
now. AS pointed out above the shoe
man lfacturer car by the use Of the
'system' increase his product and the
plece-paid laborer his wages. AT the
same time without raising royalties
the company profits enormously. The
person who seems to the writer to get
no advantage is the man who buys
the shoes. The royalty paid on each
pair is Just what it was when the
trust was formed.
And what has the United Sho Ma
chinery Company to do with linen
thread? To understand, one should re-
fer TO that interesting volume Gnter-
esting when rightly used), the Direc-
tory of Directors. He Will by a little
cross-eXamination find there that the
president and the Vice-president of
the latter. Mr.. William Barbour and
Mr.. A. r. Turner. are both directors
in the fOrmer If he attempts to find
out how the stock of the concerns is
held the one fact he Will hear %reiter-
ated is hat Mr.. Barbour. the largest
owner OF the linen thread stock. is
also q large individual stakeholder Of
United Shoe Machinery. Can any one
doubt that such a relation has not been
OF Importance to the Linen Thread
Co. in securing the so per cent of
the linen thread business which it con-
trolls? On would it be surprising, the
power, the protection and the sur
pluses OF the two being given, if there
soon was nODOdy outside of their fold
making either inen thread or shoe
machinery?
Moreover, is not the logical and al
most lneNIldDIG result OF the prdCIlcaI
monopoly of these two interviewer
concerns the rapid absorption of the
shoe manufacturers themselves? Why,
when they own and control all machin-
cry and linen thread, and furnish Il
rapidly increasing list of the findings,
should they stop there? Does not the
strategy of the situation. do not the
same arguments, the same laws which
have led to the monopoly of each and
the alliance Of the two. force them
shoe manufacturing? This is 20
new alarm. In 1901. when the New
England Shoe and Leather Associa-
ton made the report referred to above,
it said;
The fear has been expressed that
one control all the
machinery in use in the production
of shoes it would be quite easy and
enormously profitable to create a trust
which would be a monopoly in the
manufacturing business.
The committee has not discovered
the remOtest indication OF such inten-
ton. The present managers of the
Shoe Machinery Company are
unusually able, experienced men, and
they know that their profits are TO
come from cooperation with shoe
manufacturers rather than competition
with them"
That was true Of the profits then,
it is true now, but with recalcitrant
manufacturer refusing to cooperate
to work out their own sal
with funds piling up for
expansion, the good of the shoe bust
ness which led to the first monopoly
to the writer to polnt strongly
to a second.
There is but one force to hinder the
final absorption Of the shoe business
the combinations we have been
considering, and it must be admitted
this is a powerful One-there is
a rival trust with as rapaciOuS q NAV
and as brutal a rength as any the
country has produced, on the trail
Of the hOe-tha is the Beef Trust.
Nearly went years agO when n
.a;oIln NJ AInEin1nr 6icnoCnd