The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-08-30

~ KEUUB SECEGNs
But. hushl Mr.. Average American
Citizen! You are not supposed to know
anything about the fact that you are
being overcharged for nearly everv
manufactured article ysu buy. That Ia
trade secret.
The fact that your local merchant
pays 1926 for Stevens No. los shot
gun that is sold to the foreigner for
$3.50 is not supposed to be any of your
concern. Nor that the local retailer
must pay $40 per dozen for Trays
genuine "Spofford" No. 107 braces,
when the for eigner can have the very
same article for only $3.50 per dozen.
In the case of braces the British con.
sumner thus saves 33 Ia per cent as a
direct result of not having his market
curtailed by a protective duty
Shotguns and braces are not excep-
lions, nor is the cited Inference in the
import and export prices unsual. The
same favor, often in greater proper.
lions is extended. the foreigner in the
purchase of practically all American
made goods. An exceptional case would
be one in which the American re-
taller was given the same price ex-
tended the foreigner.
Coincident with the growth of the ex
port business of American manufac-
turers has been the development of
the organization and experimentation
of the scheme of granting secret favors
The more perfect the organization the
more complete the silence as to the ex-
tent of price concessions rebates and
discounts.
Having gathered SO many manufac-
turing concerns into one great domi-
mating organization in the American
market, the trust organizes into one
department all the the export business
of all the concerns under its control.
and this export department then sends
its own special and well-trained
agents out into the foreign markets
all over the world, where these agents
live and seek and secure business for
the big master trust at home.
Under The steel Trust.
Naturally the greatest of the trusts
! organizations. The United States Steel
Corporation has been the leader and
master in this. as in the domestic field
and some years ago organized all the
foreign business of all its branches,
and centered 1t in one great depart
ment which Is a corporation in itself,
called the United States Steel Product
Export Company. It's principal Offices
are in the Great Hudson Terminal
Building, in New York, and its active
agents are all over the world where
Steel business can be obtained. These
agents will cut prices for the people Of
any Nation in the world except the
American people. The American con-
sumner of steel and steel products, from
barb wire to steel nailS, must pay the
! steel trust the most unreasonably ex-
cesive rates for inferior products ow-
ing to the fact the trust has a mono
poly on American markets by virtue
nj prohibitive tariff rates. The Ameri-
can consumer must pay the price the
trust demands, or go without material.
| The trust can not be so independent
here in England, because the moment
it asks an unreasonably high price. the
consumer. having the entire world as
a market place, is free to buy of the
steel trusts competitor. In America
the high tariff wall keeps the steel
| trusts competitor out of the market,
! leaving the consumer high and dry, at
the mercy of the monopoly.