Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1912-08-02
WASHINGTON NEWS.
By C. H. Tavenner, Special Cores
pondent

pondent.
Washington, July 29.-Face to face
with the realization that a Democrat.
ic administration Is coming into con-
troll Of the government, and know
ing that this will mean an end to the
tariff protection privilege under
which they have plundered the peo-
pie for nearly score Of years, the
tariff trusts are going to raise prices
again this fail. They are going to
take one final gouge into the pocket
books Of the people before they are
pushed away from the troughs of
special privileges at which they have
grown fat.
The leather trust, which is owned,
for the most part, by the beef barons
has announced that the price of
leather Is to be increased 20 per
cent. This increase is attributed to
the greater demand Of the automO-
bile manufacturers for leather. This
demand is no greater now than it
has been for the last three or four
years, and those who are familiar
with trade conditions say the trusts
excuse Is only a subterfuge. The
increase will mean another boost in
the price Of shoes, which in turn
will mean that hundreds Of thou
sands, especially women and child
rem, who are unable to pay more
than they are now paying, will have
to use a cheaper grade Of shoes.
The cloth manufacturers, which
means the wooden trust, also have
announced an increase In prices for
fall and winter cloths. The price of
wooden cloth, It is announced, is to
go Up all the way from S to 10 cents
yard. This increase is made neoes-
Sary, the trust managers say, by the
Increased cost of labor and by an al
legged shortage of wool, not only in
this. but In other wool producing
as well.
1t will be recalled that immed,Gee-
" after the Lawrence, Mass, strike
last winter the wool trust boosted
the prices Of its products to meet
the slight increase granted the work
ers' The mill men and women who
had been working for s., Sc ard 81
week were given a five per cent
increase, which meant only few ad-
cents to them. And to meet
this increase the wool trust raised
prices 10 per cent, which was suffi-
Client to meet the labor increases
and to pay for all the lcssles brought
about by the strike. BY sticking on
this increase the trusts dividends
were not interfered with, and when
the stockholders came to clip their
coupons they found that as far as
profits were concerned there might
Just as we'll have been no strike.
Both Of these announced increases
are purely arbitrary. There isn't the
slightest necessity to increase the
prices of leather or clothing, and the
only excuse for either is the inordi-
nate greed Of the trust owners.
These men know that after next year
they will have to climb down from
their high perch from where they
have been directing their wholesale
robbery Of the people, and for that
reason they are preparing to get the
asst dollar possible for themselves
before their special privilege graft
comes to an end.
They're All Doing II Now.
The trusts have found out that
nothing pays so well as "dissolu-
ton" Following the decree of the
Standard Oil trust to dissolve, the
value Of that corporations stock
rose rapidly. The court decree, with
out changing the trust except In a
matter Of administration, amounted
practically to a governmental guaran-
lee to violate the laws. After the
decree was issued the trust owners
discovered that the monopoly stood
IN no further danger Of prosecution,
and as this always has been the
great menace to the trust, 1t was a
great boon to have It removed. Ac-
cordingly, the value Of the shares
went skyward.
AS result, other trusts have be-
gun to dissolve" The beef Trust
has announced a dissolution" plan,
30 that 1t, too, will conform to the
supreme courts notion Of what con-
stitutes law abiding trust. The
powder trust did likewise, the terms
Of the dissolution decree, In Its case,
being written by the trusts own law
yers. and later approved by the fed
eral court Of delaware.