Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1898 — THE HEYDAY OF TRUSTS. [ARTICLE]

THE HEYDAY OF TRUSTS.

The following editorial article in denunciation of trusts we copy from that very able Republican j.urnal, the Philadelphia Public Ledger. It «< unds like the roverberation of Democratic thunder. The Ledger’s remedy is the . ight remedy: The present has been an unusually good week fortrustsand combinations in restraint of trade.— One of the in st comp ehensiveot those which have been organized during the last few days is that of the Cumbination of what are known in the trade as stamping companies. Their products include practically all the varieties of tinware, the Uust will also ahsori and opertte mills which imfke tinplate and sheet stf el, their products and also porcelain and japanned ware. A promoter of the trust one of its purposes as follows; “When we are ready to start business we shall take the steel bilet and make it into the finished product, instead of having one set f men make the billet into sheet steel or into tinplate, another enamel it aid a thiid set cut it into various sizes and shapes before it reaches the stamping companies. We expect to have our own steei making plants, andfall other necessary shops, salesrooms and storehouses.”

The oombimtion will begin its operations with a capital of $25,000,000. Another of the new trusts in restraint of trade is that of the biscu t, cracker and baking companies o f the United States. It is started with a capital of $30,000,000. Another trust now being formed under the name of t’ e Enameled Ironware Company has acap : tal of $lO 000 000. It is announced that it will absorb all the independent and ennpeting companies ’n that vaii» ety of manufacturers. An English syndjcote has been oiganized to control the linen and cotton thread output of the United States. The amount of its capital is n t stated, The carriers of the Groat Lakes, representing, it is explained, nearly a.l their vast tonnage,have formed a pool or trust for the (purpose of increasing freight rates. With the exception of .he latter all these new combinations manufacture what are really some of the chief necessaries of living, articles of universal use in eveiy American household. The creation of t hese monopolistic bodies has been promoted and foster id by the Dingley act, the many excessive duties of which render such combinations in restraint of trade po*s ble and profitable to their promoters. That act, which has already dumped mar y millions of dollars into the c ffers of the sugar trust, enabling it to pay a 12 per cent, dividend regularly, and a large extra one occasionally, is resDonsible for at least nineteen of every twenty of the combinations formed under it. How seriously the whole country suffers from the e predatory organizations was shown by a dispatch from New York to the Ledger of the 15th inst On th it day the rubber trust met in that city. It agreed to advance the price of all rubber goods from 5 to 10 per cent. This is the second advance made by the combination within a few weeks. ... t the same time at the same place a new organization was form ed, to be known as the Cotton Hose Manufacturers’Association. This at present is uompoaea of from 12 to 15 firms, who manufacture cotton lined hose, but who are not interested in the manufacture of mechanical rubber goods. Should this sort of thing continue as it has continued during the last four oi fiv months, there is likely to bo not a single necessary of life upon which exorbitant duties are levied the cost of which will not be fixed and controlled by a monopolistic trust, the only cer ain way to destroy tne power of these sordid combinations to make dgai whatever the people consume in their daily living is to pnt upon the free list every product of every present duty protected trust.

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