Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1890 — A CONSPIRACY. [ARTICLE]

A CONSPIRACY.

SLANOTRS rPON THE AMERICAN mamjf*ctl’rkr of fakm irFLEMLMS >HuWa UP. By Quoting the detail Amer tad Wholesale Prices toJFpreigners tho Maker is Made to Appear as a Rascal. W.. .- • 1 ndl'nopoUs Jnurnst The reek lest nd unscrupulous hoe uidk.. organsand orato rs to American 'tow fact res ta il u» trailed in thee>hameles conepiricy to make the America! farmer believe that the American man ufacturer of agricultural implement sells them cheaper to the fo.eigi farmer tha nto h tn. This conspiracj was beg; n In 1886. and Demooratii consuls in Canada wore directed to in-vc'-t'gHte the charge and report Several of them reported implicating several American manufacturers it such a .practice. and their reports wen printed as official p pens. S neo'that time the njanu'a t.rers and others have proved that tho statements o' these federal officials, who should m intain rather than defame the reputation of American manufacturers, «vere utterly false.

The latest e ort to discredit the great agricultural implement industry of tin- co en try, which has done sc much io cheapen production and to ullevi te the hardship of the farmers' yotretipn. appears to have been a consplraey, in which the sensational and “WSBilyunscrupulous New York 'World took the loading par*, and cc:ta n pa pens which publ sh for ign trade editions seems to h .ve j layed subordinate roles. One of these publishers sent to. an extensive ni'itrufneturer and dealer, who was paying for an advortisement in his puper. for the smallest costs of p’ows. etc., together with the list of who e ale prices, to publish for the bcmetit of importing houses abroad. Tiiis the house. S. L. Allen & Co., did. Imagine the surprise of the firm when ft discovered these wholesale prices to dealers, domestic as well as foreign, paraded in the New York World at the retail prices in South America anj Canada, and the retail price, taken from the price current set againsl them as the price paid by the Ameri. can farmer. The firm final Uy wrote to the New York World calling atten tion to its mistake ( ? ) and requesting the publication of their refutation, ir which attention was called to the fact that *-instead of quoting the domestic wholesale price you quote the domestic retail prices and compare them, not with the foreign retail prices, but with foreign trade pricesthat it whole sale prices. In that letter Messrs. Alien & Co. complain to the World that it has done them an irreparable injury, and, among other denials, in. elude the following: “We deny in toto that our prices tc the domestic trade for the same quantity of goods are higher than to the -export trade. *-We deny that we sell a single machine at retail to a foreign purchaser as low as we sell at wholesale to the domestic buyer, or any lower than we do the domestic customer under similar circumstances. ‘ We pronounce as absolutely false the statements that the discounts which jc|u quote on our goods are quoted to the retail buyer abroad. They are the trade prices, and we never knowingly quote them to anybody not in the trade.” Did the World publish this states went of an injured party? Not a bit ■of it. Publication was not only refused. but the managers of the World had the audacity to threaten to sue Allen & Co. if they published it in any other paper. The letter has been published in several papers, but nothing has been heard of the suit. STILL ANOTHER CASE. For several weeks Democratic and free-trade papers have been publishing the wholesale price list of the Ann Arbor Agricultural Company, of Michigan. Tbe cut of tho implement is given with the wholesale price, and the. retail price of the article, taken from the price current is given as the price which the American retail buyer pays, while tha wholesale or trade -price is given as the price which the' foreign farmer pays. These pap.rs make this false assumption because this wholesale price list is published in the American Mail and Export Journal, which is sent to the trade it other countrips. The last of the pa pens to print this falsehood in pictoria form was the Sentinel. In spite o!. the fact that the nature and meanness of the misrepresentation was showiV' up so the United States Senate, Sena. . tor Voorhees makes this damaginslander upon American manufacturer of agricultural implements a prom nent feature in every one of his speec ee. He knows that it is false, becau the Ann Arbor house has denied it a: caused it to be explained time at time again. Aug. 22, 1890, the An Arbor company telegraphed Senato. Stockbridge as follows: ’ “Prices to w holesale dealers in thi country are the ’ same as to forelg ■ wholesale dealers, 'with boxing ar New York delivery added,” Ir. answer to inquiries of nearly a -the important manufacturers of agri cultural implements and ma.hinery ir the country, replies have, been mad* that goods are not sold lower too- so - eign than to home wholesale dealer? Tho following interesting letter i» froretbe well-known firm of Gaw Scott & Co., of Richmond, in V jjjito Ic-' ’ ■ ■—— ■ __4- xWJHMWNto * • Dear Sir—ln reply to y6ur fa ■of Aug. 20, we have to say that \ mske precisely the sd,n:e figures to tL foreign trade in our line of go >ds th we ijo ta lhe dompitlc trade. V hare never'quoted any different d «ouats'for cash to an inquirer f o

seaboard cities forexport than we do to o ber dealeia all over the country for the supply of the domestic trade. There As, therefore, absolutely no foundation.as far as wc are concerned, in the repre-entition made by some that manufacturer! made a different p be for the expert trade from that ■which is givenths dome-tic trade. “Uur Mr. Scott; whi'e in England a few years ago, found the. price-..0f a complete steam outfit, without sel'Stacker, at an Engli-h manufactory., to be £4UO, or about $2,00J, end tha price was actually paid by the owner of onw visited by him. The t.ama outfit could be sold in America for sl, 600. The capacity of the English outfit was found to be about three hundred bushels per day, on an average. The American outfit, sold at tho price above named, could thresh one thousand or twelve hundred bushels per day. and would easily average nine hundred bushels per day. This com-part-oa very clearly indicates that the American farmer buys his threshing machinery cheaper than the English, farmer, or the farmer on the continent iwho buys the English machine, while the American machine will average th ee times as much as tho English machine. Yours truly.

Gaae Scott & Co.” To a telegram from Senator Stockbridge, Studebaker Brothers of South /Bend, Ind., reply: i “We have never made a distinction in price in favor of a foreign market; all reports to the contrary are absolutely untrue.” To the Same Senator, the Oliver Chilled Plow Works reply by telegraph: ••We do not make lower prices to ,'orei/n than to American wholesale uealers. Are prepared to prove- that tul such reports are false.” The A. B. Cohn Company, manufacturers of agricultural implements in New York, say: “Domestic dealers at all times can obtain as good terms in the agricultural implement trade as can be obtained by buyers (or export. There is no such thing as retail trade in foreign countries which we know anything about.” The Chattanooga Plow Company: “Our foreign trade is with xUexico;. our prices to home trace is the same as to foreign, but the Mexican consumer pays twice as much lor plows as the American." The J. L. Chase Threshing-machine Company, Racine, Wis., wr.les: “Gur foreign trade is confined to Manitoba and the Argentine Republic, and from both these countries we obtain higher prices than we do Irom home customers.” The Waiter A. Wood? Mower and Reaping-machine Company writes; “tie receive from lu to 20 per cent, larger p.ices lor machines we send out of the country than we receive for tnoso we sell here, but our machines for the foreign market are somewhat heavier." Ex-Governor Oliver Ames, of the Ames Corporation, of Massachusetts, writes: “We have but one set of prices for the trade, domestic or foreign.” The McCormick Harvesting-machine Company writes: “As to selling our goods to the foreigntrade for less price than to the domestic, the reverse is true. We get the cash for export machines, and a very much better price than the same machines net us in the United States, where many are sold on long time!” Such are samples of the replies of the representatives of manufacturing companies to the questions which have been asked them relative to domestic and foreign prices. In this connection the following, from the Farm Implement News, of Chicago, on this subject is of interest: “It is surprising that a prominent American newspaper should betray such dense ignorance, for it is well known that American Implements are sold to foreign farmers atmuch higher prices than to American farmers. We have frequent’y called the attention of our readers to this fact, but ih order to show more clearly the difference we will quote the retail prices on the following machinery and Implements, giving highest figures for all sections east of tbe Missouri river: “Twine-binders, standard size, retail. United States, about $145; England. $225; France, $240; in Italy and other countries at still higher prices. "Mowers, standard size, retail. United States, about SSO; in England. 570 to $80; in France SBO to S9O. • Sulky hay-rakes, retail. United States, $lB to $25, according to size ’anti quality; same rakes in France, S4O o SSO; nearly as high in England. “Hay presses, steam power, retail, 'nited States. $450; in England, $750; France SBOO.,

“Hay presses, horse power, standard reversible style, retail, ' United >tates, $"285; in France, $500; in Ar;entine Republic, about $560. ••No. 40 Oliver plow, with wheel and jointer, retail, United States, sl4, n England, sl6 to $18; in other foreign countries still higher. Other plows and other makes of plows hfc sold abroad at proportionate advances jver home prices. . “Grain drills, nine-hoe. retail, United States, about S6O; in France ind Italy, $l4O. “In this way we might go through the 1 whole list of agricultural implements exported to foreign countries, in avery case the exported implement ■ rings higher prices abroad.” It is not ignorance, as the Implement News assumes, that leads the nake such false statements, but fna<gnant hostility to American in&nu:actures, and an unscrupulous purpose :» injure them by a system of lying hich, if they were, under oath, would lake them liable to the pains and penides attached to ths crime of perjury -