Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1889 — A Protective Tariff vs. Monopoly. [ARTICLE]

A Protective Tariff vs. Monopoly.

Among the efforts to popularize the policy of free foreign trade is the charge that Protection encourages “monopoly, m the absorption under one control of some entire line of busines. ap(J resultant ad- - ■ - _ . Y&nce in price of the .product thus controlled, feueh tactics may be ingenious, and not without influence with the unwary, but upon examination the charge will be found defective in lacking facts for its support Combinations there are in plenty, *nd when these get matters in hand they are quite certain to turn their advantage to personal gain, without fear of law or symyathy for purchasers of products. But they are in no wise ehargeable to our protective policy, nor confined to the United States. If there be -any truth in the contention of free trade advocates that protection enhances prices, its effect oust be to render combinations more difficult, by requiring larger sums of money for maintaining control of the markets. - The fact is that one of the first combinations for forcing up prices was formed in Great Britain shortly after Bichard Oobden and other free trade statesmen had secured changes iu the British fiscal policy. This was among the tin-plate manufacturers, and the “trust" then organised been pretty solidly preserved to the present time —so well in fact that every effort to encourage the manufacture of tin-plates in this country st ance encounters the vigorous opposition of those who reflect English opinion this side the At- ' —----■

The fallacy of charging (rode combinations to Protection becomes apparent by a glance at two just now especially prominent—the Standard Oil Company and tiie Coffee Corner. No tariff is laid on either crude petroleum or coffee, and the fact is the latter is not produced in this country at all. The case with sngar, just now forced to an inordinately high figure, differs only in so far as but a tithe of the quantity involved is of domestic production. The inJluences operating to “corner” these and other products are found just as potent in England as here; in fact efforts in that direction become effective only by control of foreign markets, made possible by the 00-operatkm of foreign capital. Oar tariff is no more responsible for the existence of combinations for patting up prices of products thaa it is for the agreement between railroads to keep up their freight and passenger charges, the combination of gas companies to make city patrons pay a high price for lights, or a resolution of fanners in a neighborhood to hold their wheat until a certain price is offered. 1 ...-Hiu... —— Senator Voorhees thinks such men as Garneigle ought to be killed. He had the same opinion of Lincoln, Grant, Sherman and all who fought for the Onion, bat did not offer to assist in the killing. He kept his hide at a safe distance and shot off his mouth at "Lincoln's