Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1896 — A TRUST BURSTS. [ARTICLE]

A TRUST BURSTS.

The Wire Nall Manufacturers* Association Goes to the Wall. Not every trust formed for the purpose of stifling competition and raising prices is successful. A tion of this we hare in the Wire Nail Manufacturers’ Association, commonly known as the nail trust, which has gone to the wall, and which wound up its business Dec. 1. This trust started into life in June, 1895, the guiding hand at the helm being J. H. Parks, of Boston. During that time it ruthlessly forced the price of wire 00-penny nails from 80 cents to $2.55 a keg and of cut GO-penny nails from 70 cents to $2.25 a keg. Its net profit during the period of its existence has fieen $1,000,000, exclusive of the royal salaries drawn by its officers. The trust started by controlling a large number of manufacturers‘Sind buy-. ing up and subsidizing rival concerns. From the manufacturers in the pool it exacted sl.sb for each keg of nails uiannfactured. Of this sum 65 cents was used for the purchase of rival plants and the Valance was rebated to the members of the trust. Then from each of the jobbers, or those to whom it sold its stock, it took 15 cents for each keg sold. This sum was held on deposit to insure against a cut in prices, and at certhin periods a rebate in full was made to thpse who had remained faithful. Those whohad cut prices received no rebate. To further guard against competition it sought to control the manufacturers of nail-making, machines.- .But new and more economical machines were nevertheless out and competition in manufacturing nffils became so keen and constant that the trust .was forced to allow the jobbers to tut prices, and hence the collapse.