The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-05-21

company, it is thought here, will re-
! veal itself in the course of a few year:
| as the greatest tobacco trust in the
| world. 1t is now in command of very
much IF the tobacco business of Ar
gentina. 1t has a partial monopoly, a
| least, of the tobacco business of Great
missed that the company expects tC
| control some of the American tobacco
| manufacturing companies which were
until the dissolution of the tobacco
trust, subsidiary concerns in that
| trust. The presumption is that the
| British-American company manage
ment believes that it will be able to do
/ some things, so far as domestic stobac-
United States are. concerned. which
would be unlawful for an American
corporation to do.
There does not seem to be any pro-
| vision of law which would prevent
this British company from carrying
out its purposes in the United States
Congress can reach the so-called ship
ping trust by prohibiting any vessel
sailing under foreign flag which is a
member of the trust from the priv
leges of our navigation laws, but it is
difficult to see how congress can pro :.
hibit the ownership by a foreign cor
poration Or by citizens of another com
pany than our own of American Securi.
ties even though these securities rep
resent interstate commerce business
strate the accuracy of the opinion of
the political economists that it is i'm.
possible to pass laws which will pre-
vent for any length of time the nor
NAL operation of fundamental economic
laws.
So that if it be true that the organi-
cations call big business which rep
resent combinations and corporations
lave inevitably followed modern invea-
ton, the high development of electrict-
ty, swift and almost instantaneous
communication and very rapid trans
portation of commodities, then the sur
missed purpose Of the British-American
Tobacco company to gain control, a
sort of holding control, of the American
tobacco manufacturing interests may
serve to show that the dissolution of
great combinations is not a solution If
the problem associated with their Gre
alton and their management.
The Investment of British Capital
There is, however, another point of
view which is of greater Importance in
the United Kingdom than in the
United States. The purpose of this
company, certainly the suspected pur-
pose. of making large investments in
American Tobacco interests is in sym
pathy with a disposition to make in
vestment of British capital in other
Kingdom and to do it by Withdrawing
capital from the home investments.
The most impressive movement of
this tendency is furnished by Canada.
Men of affairs whose homes are in
London and who have recently been in
the United States have said to their
friends in this city that the investment
of hundreds of millions of British
capital in Canada is not wholly due
to the tempting propositions which the
Canadian government and the promot-
ers of large undertakings in Canada
have made to English capital. 1t is
in part due to the willingness, almost
eagerness, of British capital to make
investments elsewhere than in Great
Britain. Some of eur bankers are of
the opinion that in the course of a few
years the withdrawal of capital from
Great Britain and the investment of
it IN other parts of the earth will Gre
ate a very serious condition. This dis
position is confesSed1y due to the APP
prehension of capital in Great Britain
that Socialists and radical legislation
will continue and at last be carried SO
far as to amount to at least a partial
confiScation of wealth. There is
good deal of British capital invested
in the vast real estate Improvement
now in progress in New York city, al |
though much of it is made under COW |
er. Ten or fifteen years ago = great |
deal of British money was invested in F.!
mortgages, especially in
some of the western states, where the |
prevailing rate of interest was not less
than 10 per cent. The bankers of the |
United States have reason to know
that since 1899 many of these mort |
cages have been paid off.
Our own people have as yet little |
of the magnitude of the |
investment of English capital in some |
of the internal improvements and in |
veStmentS now in the south. 1t is
chiefly English and Canadian capital |
greatest of the industrial undertakings
of the south whereby water pawer is |
to be converted into electric energy 1
which may be conveyed many miles
road now under construction, which !
will be when completed about $50
miles in length, has been financeG ex-
clusively with English money. Eng
Is inevitably to have a great develop
ment, both agricultural, industrial and
to some extent mineral
1t is the understanding here that !
English capital was first tempted to |
look at the opportunities of Texas by /
the unqualified enthusiasm with |
which the late E. H. Hartman spoke |
Of the resources which that great state
contains, it being a part of what Mr..
Hartman often called, the empire I
known as the San Antonio. Rockport |
and Mexican railway, is. if the plans
Of the English syndicate be carried
put, to be extended from the Rio !
Hrande to Mexico City and to Tampi
90, and there are limitations that the |
syndicate has in mind ultimately the
of the greatest of north
and south lines on the American con-
.inent, stretching from Winnipeg on
he north to Mexico City on the south.
Other railway projects are entertained
" English capital in Texas. The magni--I
ude of the work and the sincerity of the
English syndicate which has undertaken
are shown by the fact that the engineer |
n charge is Sir Douglas Fox. who was
he engineer who constructed the Sim
olon tunnel through the Alps and is now
building the Cairo-to-Cairo railroad in
Africa HOLLAND.
inHon lIEnnnn nAnnrn