Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1888 — Page 3

TRUSTS UNDER TARIFF.

A Flood of Light Let In Upon a Misapplied Complaint. Somathing of the Connection Between Trusts and a Protective Tariff. Aiming' to Kill Competition at Home— Outrageous Prices Exacted from Consumers. [From the New York Times.] The organ of the American Iron and -Steel Association, the Bulletin, complains -that trusts and similar combinations are “offensively referred to” in the President’s message “as if they were particularly a product of” our tariff system, and points out that trusts are to be found in industries “with which our protective policy has nothing to do.” It also asserts that they flourish “in free-trade England,” the purpose of its remarks being to induce the reader to infer that not even the remotest ■connection exists between trusts and the tariff in this country. The Bulletin speaks of “trusts and combinations.” There are combinations which are not trusts, but whqfe control of the market is as complete as it would be if they had been organized upon the plan of ■the Standard Oil monopoly. We do not know that actual trusts have been formed in any of the iron and steel industries, but it is notorious that many of those industries have been and are controlled by combinations of manufacturers which are as effective, so far as production and prices are concerned, as trusts could be. Any reference to “combinations” which does not hold them up as blessings to mankind must be “offensive” to the organ of the Iron and Steel Association. Now let us see whether there are any trusts or combinations in industries which enjoy the protection afforded by high duties. Lead—The average ad valorem rate of

duty paid last year was 59.27 per cent, on the ore, 68.97 on pigs and bars, and 60.82 on sheets. * When the National Lead Trust was organized last fall, the Tribune said: “The present price of lead is about as high as it can be to maintain its standing in the markets as against the imported article, and the aim of the syndicate will be to keep up this price.” The price is now much higher. Sugar—The average duty last year was 82.04 per cent., and on two-thirds of the quantity imported it was more than 84 per ■cent. The duties paid exceeded $56,000,000. The refiners appear to have succeeded in putting their trust on a firm foundation. The St. Louis refinery was absorbed last week. The organization will be capitalized, it is said, at $50,000,000. As to the ■effect on prices we refer again to the Tribune, a thick-and-thin protection organ. The sth inst., it said: “Since it (the Sugar Trust) became a fixed fact cut loaf has gone up to 7f cents a pound, granulated to 6|, and the soft sugars have all advanced.” Rubber shoes—Full accounts of the formation of a trust by the rubber manufacturers of the country have been published. The industry is said to represent an investment of $50,000,000 and ita annual trade ■of $100,000,000. The duty on rubber shoes is 25 per cent. Our erratic contemporary, the Sun, complains loudly that “it is well-nigh impossible to procure for love or money in the open market a pair of sound, substantial, honest, staying rubber overshoes,” and says that some one can get rich by making good overshoes and selling them at a reasonable price. We venture to remind the Sun that competition has virtually been killed in this business. The quality, quantity, and price are, we presume, fixed by the trust. The tariff assists the trust in maintaining the prices on poor goods. Envelopes—The makers of envelopes in the United States have made a compact trust and prices are to be raised. The duty on envelopes is 25 per cent. School-slates —The manufacturers have formed a combination which controls the business, and this combination has raised prices 17 per cent, since May last. The duty is 30 per cent. Paper bags—The trust formed in the bag-making industry controls the price of grocers’ bags and the large flour sacks used in the West. It is stated that these flour bags are made of manila rope stock and jute butts. The duty on untarred manila rope averaged last year 32.89 per cent., on manila it was 21.06, on jute butts 19.13, ■and on the manufactured bags it appears to have been 35 per cent. Linseed oil—The Western manufacturers have formed a pool or trust to control the Western market. The average duty paid last year on imported oil was 54.79 per cent. Paving pitch—The pitch used in roofing and paving is said to be controlled in this ■country t>y a pool or combination, at the head of which are Widener and Elkins, the Philadelphia speculators who are applying the trust system to gas-works and street-railways in several large cities. “Not a pound of roofing pitch,” said the Chicago Tribune in September last, “not a yard of felt roofing paper, and not a gallon of paving pitch can be obtained in this country unless Widener and Elkins raise their fingers and give permission for its sale.” The duty on the pitch of coal tar is 20 per ■cent, and that upon roofing felt is the same. Salt—How much progress toward the formation of a salt combination has been made we do not know. A meeting was held in September, and it was re ported then that the arrangement for a union of sixtythree companies had been completed. The average duty on imported salt last year was 39.30 per cent. Cordage—There are less than thirty -cordage mills in the country, and for years they were controlled by a pool which'limited production and fixed prices. This pool was broken last spring and a new one, representing two-thirds of the productive capacity, was formed in the summer. The new pool is said to control the supply of imported manila and similar raw material. The average ad valorem rates of duty last year were as follows: Manila, 21.06; jute, 20; sisal, 14.80; tarred cables and cordage, 30.13; untarred manila cordage, 32.89; other untarred cordage, 30.08. Steel—ln October the crucible and openhearth manufacturers of steel formed a combination to regulate and maintain prices. The Bessemer manufacturers also formed a similar association or pool. The eteel-rail makers met November 15, and

“it was agreed,” said the TVibtme at the time, ‘to leave the matter of output and details to the Board of Control. Prices are to be maintained at current rates.” The rate of duty paid last year on steel rails was 8L33 per cent. Steel in all its forms is heavily protected. The trusts or combinations mentioned above have been formed in industries of which the Bulletin cannot say that “our protective policy has had nothing to do” with them. But the list is far from complete. It relates only to some of the combinations whose formation has recently been reported by the press. The maintenance of these industries of monopolies in the home market is favored by the tariff wall. It is the aim of those who make these combinations to kill competition at home, and to exact from consumers a price almost high enough to invite competition from abroad—to make them pay to protected home manufacturers almost as great a tax as they must pay to the Government when they buy the same kind of goods from foreign manufacturers. By thus combining to the people’s injury they invite a reduction of the tariff rates which enable them to form monopolies.

WOES OF THE FARMERS.

As Related by Senator L. D. Whitney, of Bureau County, Illinois. How Corporate Greed, High Interest, and the Tariff Are Ruining Agriculture. [From the Chicago Herald.] The chief feature in the programme of the Henry County Farmers’ Institute was Senator Whiting’s speech on “The Decline of Agricultural Prosperity—lts Cause and Cure.” In regard to the" attraction which the subject had for the Henry County farmers, it may well be said that Mr. Wbiting’s speech was last, but not least, on the programme. The hall was crowded to its utmost capacity, and for once since the proceedings opened the staid old farmers preponderated in numbers over the ladies. Senator Whiting w as received with applause, but his appearance evidently excited as much surprise as approval. As has been stated, Henry County is strongly Republican, and the talk that “Senator Whiting is going to deliver a free trade speech” had been the topic of conversation for days. Mr. Whiting’s speech was anything but a free trade oration, though <he gave the farmers some useful hints in that direction. He spoke calmly and collectedly, without manuscript. Unquestionably his remarks, impressively and deliberately as they were delivered, were the result of deep meditation. He said in substance: I know of no pursuit, profession, or calling, that should tlx prices to suit themselves. If we farmers should fix the prices of our products as we see fit we would be as bad as others. Competition should rule, not the individual nor a corporation. Farmers are slow to move. They would not move at all if they did not see some impending peril. I shall endeavor to show you why the farmers should move, should organize. In speaking of the prosperity I want particularly to refer to village centers like Galva. I want these villages to feel that if the farmer does something to elevate himself in standing or in morals, the villagers have some interest in it. Their prosperity, not in a measure, but in general, depends upon it. National prosperity has poured over the length and breadth of the land a golden shower. It has blessed every branch of labor and exertion except the agricultural interest. Statisticians tell us that the wealth of the nation has increased from $16,000,1)00,000 in 1860 to $44,060,000,000 in 1880. Now we can well say that the rural workers form one-half of the population. Let me ask you, does not the farmer do as much work as any other man? Is he not as sturdy, as honest, as thrify, as anybody else? If so, should he not be entitled to one-half of the gain of $28,000,000,000 in the nation’s wealth? What did he get? He got $5,000,000,000 to the $21,000.000,0J0 somebody else got. Since 1880 his (the farmers’) interests, proprietary and otherwise, have declined. You have listened to many pleasant speeches from this platform. I cannot give you anything pleasant—nay, I have to pronounce an indie* ment. Still, I want it to be understoo that I am not speaking antagonistic to anything that surrounds us in the rural parts of Illinois. New England farming is in ruins, in Pennsylvania and New York there are signs of decay, and I understand that the case is the same in Ohio. I learn that within the last ten years farming lands in Bureau County have declined $lO an acre. That means $3,000,000 loss for one county in Illinois. In Henry County, your own home, the loss is more than that. In lowa and Kansas the farm is mortgaged to its utmost capacity and sometimes even more. I am afraid that the time is again at hand when the tiler of the soil has to leave his dear old home and set his face westward—west to that boundless region where the hope of the country rests. If it should come to it that our farmers' homes are abandoned, gobbled by some absentee landlord, and then tenanted by some poor renter —if it should come to that, I say, are we not confronted with the pernicious peasant system of Europe ?

The farmers should help themselves and not trust to somebody else to help them. We read in the papers daily of the formation of new trusts and corporations. The gentlemen who form them destroy every principle of sound political economy. I could name fifty great combinations that have come up of late, but I will confine myself to three. There is the lumber combination, which has caused the price of lumber to go up from to $4 a thousand. It has helped the combine some that there is a duty of $2 on Canadian lumber. Do you know of any reason why lumber should be dearer now than five or ten years ago? Then there is sugar. The grade I used tojpuy comes at thirteen pounds for sl. We used to get fifteen. Why this difference? Because there is a sugar trust, and the Government helps the combine by putting a duty of three cents on every pound of sugar. When you want to buy a plow next spring, you will find the price advanced. Why ? Because the plow men formed a combination which is equal to a trust. If you ask the combine why this raise, you will be told because the steel manufacturers advanced the price of steel. Take all these cases. Is it not a fact that the consumer has to pay it all. Another combine is the rubber combination. These men were not exactlj forcing prices, but they are furnishing an inferior particle. Many of these matters can only be remedied by legislation, and that cannot be secured until there is something like farmer politics, until you do for yourself what other classes have done for themselves long ago. The speaker then spoke of the adulteration of almost every article of food as one of the causes of the decline of agricultural prosperity, and subsequently touched upon the high rates of interest. The farmer had to pay as much as 12 per cent., certainly not less than 8. In cities the rate was about 2 per cent. less. Municipalities, the State and National Governments obtained the money they needed for about half of what the city borrowers had to pay. Mr. Whiting then passed on to the concluding subject among the causes which he mentioned for the decline of the farmers’ prosperity—the tariff. He said: In the war of 1812 manv manufacturing establishments sprang up in the New England States. When the war was ended it was natural that the infant industry should be protected. When the civil war came there were high taxes, direct taxes upon the manufacturers. That was natural. But it is unnatural that high taxes should remain after the warremain not for the manufacturer, but for the consumer. What is the result? The Treasury

of the United States is gorged, the Government does not know what to do with the mouev. There is a sort of statesman who advocates the abolishment of taxes on whisky and tobacco. I say, let us farmers stand together and have removed the taxes from the necessaries of life. Cheap whisky and tobacco do not relieve us farmers from ocr wants and troubles. Though part of the farmers may use tobacco and some of them may be addicted to strong drink, I claim that nearly •very one of them is willing to pay war pr.ces for his whisky and tobacco and have cheaper sugar, clothing and lumber. It is not necessary that one take to chewing tobacco in order to help the United States of America. I tell you there is a great effort being made, not a'one by those who eschew tobacco and by those who advocate prohibition to have reform in these matters. Several States have passed laws to teach the children in the schools the effects of tobacco and whisky. There is a tendency that the r sing generation shall be an improvement upon the present one. Here Senator Whiting drifted off into a philippic against the use of tobacco and whisky, and closed by saying the people did not want any back-sliding in legislation touching these matters. That was the sense of at least every farmers’ meeting recently held throughout the Northwest. In lowering the taxes the necessaries of life should be unburdened instead of whisky and tobacco. The speech was time and again interrupted by vociferous applause. It was a fitting and impressive close of the convention of the Henry County Farmers' Institute.

A WORD TO FARMERS.

It Is Time for Agriculturists to Quit Being Made the Tools of Other Classes. [From the Tennessee Farmer. ] In 1880 the aggregate value of the iron and steel manufactured in the United States was $296,000,000, but as this included the pig-iron twice, first as a separate product and again in the bar-iron or steel into which it went, its value of $89,000,000 is twice given. A more correct estimate, when the report is free from duplications, would place the aggregate at about $200,000,000. During the year ending June 30, 1881, the export of American agriculture to foreign nations was of the value of $7’29,650,000, or three and one-half times as much as our total products of iron and steel —and this, too, after our enormous home demand had been filled. If, therefore, it were true that a protective tariff were needed to support our iron furnaces—which we utterly deny, for we made iron long before we ever had a tariff—yet to secure a trade worth $200,000,000 we are jeopardizing one worth $700,000,000. The loss of that foreign trade for our agricultural products not only determines the fact whether we shall make anything on what we sell at home of such products, but would of itself entail, if lost or but one year, a greater injury to American industry than the destruction of three times the capital invested in all our iron and steel works as it stood in 1880. Yet this system is called “protection," and, we are told, is kept up to enable iron men to pay “good wages.” Farmers have their workmen to pay also, and grubbing potatoes is just as honorable as grubbing iron ore, and a far higher degree of intelligence is required. It is time for agriculturists to quit being made the tools of the other classes, and to demand that taxes not needed to support the Government shall not be transferred by the Government to favored induslries. What the Government does not need to maintain public peace, order, and security, should remain in the taxpayers’ pockets. Reduce the tariff.

FARMERS AND THE TARIFF.

An Appeal Against the Protection of Monopolists and the Ruin of Agriculture. [Wajhington special.] The farmers and delegates to the Nebraska Farmers’ Alliance meeting have sent in a strongly worded petition to Congress asking for a removal of the duty on iron, lumber, sugar, wool, salt, and wooden goods. In the document, which is indorsed by the National Farmers’ Alliance and State granges of Illinois, Indiana and 'ennsylvania, the husbandmen point out that the statistics of Illinois show that from 1880 to 1886 eighty-seven of the richest agricultural districts of that State suffered an actual loss in population, and that $50,000,000 was lost on corn in the past five years, thus proving that the farmers worked without earning even a day’s wages. Under the present system the petitioners urge that farms are passing to mortgagees, and farmers are being reduced to the condition of the unhappy tenantry of Ireland. The existing state of affairs, they claim, is due mainly to the protective tariff system now prevailing, which taxes the farmers of the nation for the aggrandizement of manufacturers on the plea of protecting American labor, while white labor is left free to come from all parts of the world. In concluding, the farmers allege that the agricultural products are sold in the open markets of the world in competition with the cheapest labor, while the manufacturer, through the operation of the protective tariff, received a bonus of from 25 to 100 per cent, on his wares. Incidentally, the petitioners protest against the removal of the tax on whisky and tobacco, and express the hope that Congress will never pronounce in favor of freeing such articles from taxation and burdening the necessities o' life. The document has been laid before both houses of Congress.

Unrest and Ruin Among Laborers in Highly Protected Industries.

Senator Frye and his associates are never capable of explaining how it comes that in the protected industries of their own country the rates of wages are lower than in the industries that owe nothing to protection. Nor are they able to tell how it comes that in these protected industries, employing a comparative small portion of the population of the United States, there are more strikes, more conflicts to maintain wages above the starvation line, more unrest, and more frequent demoralization and distress than in all the other industries of the country put together.— Philadelphia Record.

The High Tariff Curse Differs Only in Degree from War or Pestilence.

The rates of wages are lowest and the condition of labor worst under the most highly protective systems in a gradually descending scale. The high protective spirit in Spain has converted a brilliantly endowed and enterprising nation into} one of the poorest and feeblest in Europe. Its influence in Cnina, where the protective system has obtained the most complete development that the world has ever known, has been blighting. High protection is a gigantic curse upon the population of Europe, differing only in degree of destructiveness from war and other scourges that afflict mankind.— Philadelphia Record.

A TEXAS DICK TURPIN.

One of the Most Extraoid nory Stage-Ccach Robberies on Record. Dividing ths Pander with Those Whom He Had Despoiled—A Genial Road Agent. A year or so ago the most wonderful feat of stage jobbery startled the whole State of Texas. It was 11 o’clock in a bright September night, and the stage was filled with passengers. There were seven drummers on it, who had been to San Angelo with their samples and were eager to get to Ballinger, the nearest railroad point. San Angelo is a very important town in the western part of Texas, and is the county seat of that enormous district called Tom Green County, which has an area of ten thousand square miles. The stage was but twelve miles from Ballinger, and each mile-post was counted impatiently by the weary men. A mounted highwayman, with gleaming pistol, suddenly halted them, springing up miraculously as if from the very earth. “Hold up, gentlemen! Stop your team, driver! Gentlemen, will you please oblige me by getting out of the stage? This side, please. Now stand in a row with your hands up while I glace these slicker caps over your eads to prevent your seeing what I do. Pardon me for running my hands down in your pockets and searching you, but I must get your money, and I want you to keep your hands up. ” When he had finished with the passengers and had rifled the mailbags he made a mental inventory of his possessions, and found that he had $1,178 in money, seven watches, and four pistols, Then he removed the the bag-like caps he had placed over their heads, and said: “Gentlemen, I am sorry to detain you longer, but I have made up my plans to rob that stage coming from Ballinger, and you must wait here until it comes up. Business is business, you know." He then sat down and began to look over the boodle, while the passengers loitered about and amused themselves as best they could under the circumstances. Among the confiscated pistols was found a small 22-caliber weapon, and the highwayman yelled out:

“Here, who in h—l owns this dodgasted, measly, two-bit toy gun?” “I did,” said one of the passengers. “Well, I’m going to make you take it back. If the boys would find that on me they would string me up for contempt.” “Pardner,” said the driver, “it’s mighty cold sitting here; can’t you ‘set ’em up’ to something to drink?” “That’s whatever; you all just wait here a few minutes.” He leaped on his horse, which had remained near them grazing, galloped off rapidly, and disappeared in a small chapparal thicket near by, and almost instantly was seen to emerge again, holding high in his left hand two quart bottles of whisky. He suddenly reined up his horse when about fifty feet from the men, and said: “I know that while I was gone you fellows were laying some scheme to take me. I suppose you think you will shoot me with that little pistol. Now, I don’t want to have this evening’s entertainment wind up in a row, and I am going to make every fellow come up and get his drink one at a time.”

The whisky put every one in a jolly good humor, and it was generally agreed that if it were not for his erratic ideas of meum and teum the robber i would be a clever fellow. Newsome i went to work to count over his gains I again, making some calculations on the ' ground with a stick. i Finally he said: “Boys, I’m short sl9. I must rob you over ag’in, beca ise I have given some fellow a S2O gold piece for a dollar.” He went through them again, and discovered it in the pocket of thesman to whom he had intended to give $3. He gave the passenger $2 and put the gold piece in his own pocket. As he was moving off the passenger touched him on the shoulder. “You owe me a dollar.” “How is that?” “Wasn’t I to have $3?” “That’s so. Here’s another sl.” The driver was seized with a scheme and said: “Suppose, Colonel, that you let us ; drive on until we meet the other stage , and you ride along by our side?” i “That’s a good idea, ” said he. “Pro- ’ ■ ceed and keep quiet, and if you fellows i will just lay low and watch me go through that Ballinger crowd you will have fun enough to pay you for what you have lost. ” The stage was soon met. The first was stopped about eighty yards off and the robbing process was repeated. On this stage there were four passengers —two ladies and two old preachers. i The ladies he declined to rob, and the j preachers had nothing.* When he had concluded his work he galloped off to the chaparral thicket and fired a shot as a signal for them to move on. They moved. The name of the bold bandit who committed this extraordinary robbery is James A. Newsome, and he is now serving a life sentence in the United States prison at Albany, N. Y. He is only five and a half feet tall and weighs 125 poufids. At the time of the commission of the crime he was only twenI ty-three years old.

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—The annual report of Superintendent Baker, of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, shows that during the year there were 357 deaf mutes admitted to the institution and thirty-two dismissed. About sixty pupils have received instructions in articulation, and the results, the Superintendent says, has been wonderful. But the report adds: “Many more could receive instructions than are now receiving it, but so long as there is but one teacher of articulation, as at present, it will be impossible to increase the number," and the Superintendent recommends that steps be taken to secure an additional teacher. It is also recommended that a system should be adopted whereby a teacher for each particular trade taught in the industrial department should be employed. For this purpose it will be necessary to increase the amount of the annual appropriation $5,000. The art of printing has been added to the industrial department during the past year, with gratifying results. Eight boys and eight girls are receiving instructions under a practical printer. A five-column paper, called the Indianapolis Deaf Mule Jour~ nal, is being published semi-monthly. The Superintendent’s report was a neatly printed document, the typographical and press-work being done by the mute printers of the institution. —The Fair Managers, Builders* and Exhibitors’ Association of the counties of Grant, Blackford, Huntington, Wells, Whitley, Kosciusco, Wabash, Madison, Tipton, Howard, and Miami met at Marion recently. The purpose of the meeting was to adopt a uniform list of premiums, to prepare a schedule of dates for the county and district fairs in tho circuit, and to transact such other business as might be necessary. The dates for fairs in the district were fixed as follows: Tipton, Aug. 14 to 17; Xenia, Aug. 21 to 24; Hartford City, Aug. 21 to 24; Marion, Aug. 29 to Sept. 1; Anderson, Sept. 3 to 7; Warren, Sept. 3 to 7; Wabash, Sept 19 to 14; .State Fair, Sept. 17 to 22; Montpelier, Sept. 18 to 21; Fairmount, Sept. 24 to 28; North Manchester, Oct. 2to 6. —One night recently some students of Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, concluded to have some “fun” at the expense of the college. They procured a ladder and entered the chapel, carried away the singing books, nailed up the doors, and placed limberger cheese inside the heaters. The next morning the devotional exercises were held as usual, in spite of the smell of the cheese, and with singing books procured from Center Church. Such “fun" as this should be paid with a dose of law.

—The trial of the Fort Wayne Water Works Trustees by the City Council, for malfeasance in office, did not come off as anticipated. The Trustees applied for a restraining order, and Judge Chapin granted the application and issued a temporary order restraining the Council’s action. The Court held that the Trustees were not answerable to the Council for their acts, and that the charges of the City Council were not sufficient to warrant a trial for malfeasance of office. —A 4-year-old son of John Fahey, living four miles north of Indianapolis, was burned to death recently. Mrs. Fahey left the child in an upstairs room while she went down stairs to get a bucket of water, and when she returned the little one’s clothing was in flames, having caught fire from an open grate. She called for help, and some of her neighbors camo to her assistance, but before the flames could be extinguished the child was horribly burned. —The arrearages and increase of pensions during the past year have added 1 argely to the total amount paid out by the United States Pension Office at Indianapolis. The January statement shows that $169,680 was expended during that month, making an increase of $50,000 over the amount paid on pensions during the corresponding month of last year. —The old settlers of Wayne Township, Henry County, met in convention recently, and organized a historical society, with the following officers: Dr. Wilson Hobbs, President; J. Lee Fergason, Vice President; T. B. Deem, Secretary; W. M. Heaton, Treasurer, j The constitution and by-laws of the County Historical Society were adopted. < —Howard Baker, a wealthy and highlyrespected farmer living near Shoals, died after suffering intense agony for a week. At the, time of the accident he was unloading hay from a sled, when he slipped and fell on one end of the standards of the sled, which penetrated his abdomen five inches.

—A vestibule train westward-bound on the Fort Wayne road, struck a sled at Hobart, breaking it to pieces. The sled contained Charles Miller, a farmer, and his wife. Both were thrown out. Mrs. Miller was not hurt at all, but her husband was very seriously, if not fatally, injured. —Members of the Standard Oil Company have leased 4,000 acres of land in Madison County for the purpose of drilling gas wells to supply R ichmond with gas. As per contract, 50 cents per acre per annum and SIOO for each successful well drilled is paid the lessor. —George Moody, of Terre Haute, for many years a farmer living north of Brazil, fell between the cars on the Vandalia coal branch, near Knightsville. An arm and a leg were cut off. He was removed to a house near by, but died in a few minutes. He was GO years old. —Recently George W. Bicourt, of Lebanon, cut his foot badly with an ax. While his father in-law, l>r. D. C. Scull, was on his way to attend him he fell on an icy pavement and fractured three ribs. - —Edward Harrington, of Jonesville, aged 40, was run over and killed by aJ. M. & I. train.