Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1888 — TRUSTS UNDER TARIFF. [ARTICLE]

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.