Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-07-20
FEAR TARIFF REFORM
REAL CAUSE OF AGITATION OF
THE BIG TRUSTS.
See in the Near Future an Ending of
Their ExtortIon Made Possible by
the Payne-Aldrich Tariff
Law.

What is known as the Lumber trust
a combination covering almost the en-
tire country where forests have not
yet disappeared. occupied contrasted
positions in the national capital a few
days ago. While the representatives
of this particular one of the .'conspira-
cies in restraint of trade" were plead
ing before the Committee on Finance
against reciprocity with Canada. the
government. by Attorney General
Wickersham, brought suit against it
for violating the Sherman Antitrust
law. In the sweeping bill presented
by the attorney general to the United
States court not less than ten corpor-
atoms and their official directors and
managers are accused of offenses in
restraint of trade in one of the great
staple products of the land.
Formidable as in this judicial dem
onstration Oh paper and sincere as is
the purpose of the government need
it be said that the reciprocity bill pro
viding for free trade in lumber with
Canada gives this combination far
more concern? Fresh evidence of this
has been given almost daily before the
Committee on Finance. Leonard Bron-
son, manager of the National Lumber
association, of Chicago, appeared
again before the committee with a
silly story that he had been told by
somebody that ex-President Roosevelt
and ex-senator Pinchot are behind the
lumber interests in their ''conserya-
ton" policy. Other representatives
and lobbymen of the Lumber trust
have been prowling around Washing
ton ever since the special session be-
gan. With one and all in buttonholing
senators and members the pleat is
that the free admission of lumber from
Canada will ruin" not merely the lum-
bre interests, but the paper manufac-
turers of this country.
Whilst tho American people doubt
less c%heerfully conce6e to President
Taft and his administration the best
intentions in prosecuting the Lumber
trust, along with like conspiracies in
restraint of trade, it may take sew
eral years before a final decision is
reached. Even then it is by no means
certain that the Supreme court should
find that the acts of this combination
are in unreasonable" restraint of
trade. On the other hand, reciprocity
will at once open the vast forests OF
Canada, extending to Hudson bay. to
the lumber consumers of the United
States. Free trade in Canadian lum-
Der, not the government prosecutions,
is what is causing the visible anxiety
of the trust and its agents who are
haunting the Committee Of Finance.
What is true of the Lumber trust
is true also of the other great combina-
lions in restraint of trade that are
filling their Golfers with the spoils of
the American people under fayoritism
of the Payne-AIdrich tariff. While
the government prosecutions already
begun or threatened give them com
paratively little concern, they regard
as fatal to their conspiracies to main
tain prices against American consum-
ers the withdrawal of the prop that
supports them. But in the hatred Of
these combinations ~engendered In the
public mind it finds its qualification
in the sensational spectacle of govern
ment prosecutions and is thus with
drawn in great degree from the home
ly and effective means of dealing
with them in substantial revision of
the tariff. While the trusts will not
make much open complaint against
these prosecutions, there will be no
bounds to their rage against a re-
duction of the protective duties that
now foster them.