Gloucester County Democrat., 1912-08-01
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER

lu eIiu Ut the tdTtil pIOtScliUn pllfli-
ege under which they have plundered
the people for nearly a score of years,
though tariff trusts are going to raise
prices again this fall They are going
to take one final gouge into the pocket
books of the people before they are
pushed away from the troughs of
4 special privilege at which they have
grown fat.
The leather trust, which is owned,
s for the most part, by the beef barons,
has announced that the price of lea
ther is to be increased 20 per cent.
This increase lis attributed to the
greater demand of the automobile
manufacturers for leather. This de-
mand 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 subterfuge. The increase will
mean another boost in the price of
shoes, which in turn will mean that
hundreds of thousands, especially
women and children. who are unable
4 to pay more than they are now pay
ing, will have to use a cheaper grade
of shoes.
The cloth manufacturers - which
means the wooden trust-also have
j announced an increase in prices for
] fall and winter deliveries. The price
of woolen cloth, it is announced, is
/ to go up all the way from 5 to Is
cents a yard This increase is made
necessary, the trust managers say,
by the increased cost of labor and by
an alleged shortage of wool, not only
in this, but in other producing
countries as well.
1t will be recalled that Immediately
after the Lawrence, Mass, strike last
winter the wool trust boosted the
prices of its products to meet the
slightest increase granted the workers
The mill men and women who had
4 been wolzing for $5, Sc and 81 week
| were given a five per cent. increase,
which meant only few additional
cents to them And to meet this in
crease the wool trust raised prices Is
per cent which was sufficient to
meet the labor increase, and to pay
4 for all the losses brought about by the
strike. BY acting on this increase
the trusts dividends were not inter-
fered with, and when the stock holders
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
price 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
alone they are preparing to get the
| last dollar possible for themselves
before their special privilege graft
comes to an end
They're All Doing 1t Now.
The big trusts have found out that
nothing pays as we'll as dissolution
! As a result of the Supreme Court de-
cree ordering the Standard Oil Trust
to dissolve, the value of that trusts
stock went up in leaps and bounds
] The court decree, without charging
the trust in any way except in the
matter of administration, amounts
practically to a government guarantee
to violate the law. After the decree
was issued the monopoly discovered
] that it stood in no further danger of
federal prosecution, inasmuch as the
decree fixed the legal status of the
trust, and as this menace had ben the
chief worry of the trust, and the only
remaining thorn in its side, it's value
went skyward just as soon as that
| menace was removed.
As a result, the other trusts have
begun to dissolve The beef trust
has announced dissolution plan,
so that it, too, will confirm to the
Supreme Courts notion of what con-
titutes law abiding trust. The pow
der trust has already dissolved the
iterms of it's dissolution decree having
been written by its own lawyers, and
later approved by the Federal Court
in Delaware.
! Next to the high tariff, dissolution
lis the best thing that ever happened
to the trusts.
Wilson and immigration.
/ A great deal OF comment is heard
about a statement in one of Governor
t Wilson's S books concerning his views
on immigration At the time Mr. Will
son wrote the book in question, the
transatlantic steamship companies
were artifically stimulating INNING
ton to this country from southern
Europe by holding out false promises
to the prospective immigrants. In
! huge advertisements these people
were told that every immigrant would
be given farm on arrival here, and
that good paying jobs awaited every
body. This had the effect of bringing
over a lot of people who were untitled
to come, and who would have re-
mained at home had they known the
real truth.
Mr.. Wilson protested against this
sort of thing, and now certain Repub-
lican newspapers are trying to make
it appear that he wants to keep all
immigrants out of this country
! Mr.. Wilson is in favor of imnligra-
3.;c,, IIa oiSlyr only thn safe and req