Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1899 — THE HOME OF TRUSTS. [ARTICLE]

THE HOME OF TRUSTS.

FREE-TRADE ENGLAND THEIR FAVORITE SOIL. To Abolish Protection in the United States as a Means of Throttling the Combines Would Be Fatal to Many American Industries. * Under the caption, “The Growth of Monopoly in English Industry," H. W. Macrosty, in the “Contemporary Review,” furnishes some interesting information respecting trusts in Great Britain which deserves to be attentively studied by those misguided writers who assume that protection is responsible for the movement in the direction of Industrial combination so prevalent in this country at present Mr. Macrosty furnishes abundant evidence that the phenomena is not confined to protective countries, and shows that the movement is as farreaching in free trade England as in the United States. Speaking of the growth of combinations in the United Kingdom he says: “Single amalgamations, while not entirely excluding competition, control the screw, cotton, thread, salt, alkali and India rubber tire industries, In other cases a formal agreement of masters fixes prices; thus, in the hollow ware trade (metal utensils) prices are arranged by an informal ring of a dozen Birmingham firms. Similarly there is no open market in antimony, nickel, mercury, lead pipes, fish supply and petroleum. Steel and iron rails are controlled by an Enlish rail ring, which so manages matters that it is undersold by American, Belgian and German competitors. AU the largest firms in the newspaper-making indus-

try have just consolidated their interests into one large combination. In the engineering trades twenty-four firms have a subscribed capital of £14,245,000. In 1897 Armstrong & Co. absorbed Whitworth & Co., raising their capital to £4,210,000 in the process. Vickers & Co., the armor plate manufacturers, are another example of a very large amalgamation. In the spring of 1897 they bought up the Naval •Construction and Armament Company, and later they acquired the Maxim-Nordenfeldt Guns and Ammunition Co. Now they boast of being the only firm capable of turning out 'a battle ship complete In every respect. The most noteworthy examples of combination, however, are to be found in the Birmingham staple trade and in the textile industries.” This condensation is supplemented by extended details showing that slowly but surely the British organizer Is bringing every possible plan of money making within the field of his operations, and that England is rapidly becoming the home of trusts. Here is his summing up: • “We thus see in British industry a steady movement toward combination and monopoly, a movement which is the natural outcome of competition, and therefore not capable of being prevented or undone by law.” The keen critic will not fail to note that this admission is fatal to the assumption that protection is responsible for the creation of trusts. If trusts are the natural outcome of competition, as Mr. Macrosty avers, then the evil cannot be attributed to a policy which has the effect of restraining the area of competition. We may add that this view, that competition is responsible for combinations, has found expression tn the works of such distinguished freetraders as J. Tborold Rogers, and that tt is only the “feather-weight” economists, fighting under the Cobden banner in this country, who have sought to fasten the responsibility for the evil on protection. Not only is protection not responsible for the trust evil, but it may be claimed that it offers the only remedy for its suppression. We venture to say that no protectionist will assent to <he proposition that combination is “not capable of being prevented or undone by law," but tt is natural enough for a free-trader to assume that the evil is irremediable, except by a resort to socialism, as Mr. Macrosty does In .. \ I

hls concluding sentence, in which he says: “Nevertheless, with the weapon of state control in hand, combination may be welcomed, and if control proves insufficient, state purchase and public administration remain behind.** Protectionists, accustomed as they are .to the idea of regulation, will not hesitate to resort to the most drastic measures if they find it necessary to do so in order to stamp out the evil. By carefuUy limiting the area of competition to their own country the statesmen of a protective nation can control trusts, but that will be found an impossible achievement in a free trade country, for the simple reason that the attempt to prohibit combination tn a land with wide-open trade doors wIU prove destructive to domestic industry.—San Francisco Chronicle. Fit Punishment for Atkinson. Don’t send Mr. Atkinson to Jail. Don’t accommodate him in that way. In this matter he isn’t worth feeding at the public expense.—Washington Star. The American punishment for such pubUc enemies is public contempt, as lasting as it is sincere, as earnest in spirit as it is humorously temperate in expression. No fine could be as heavy, no imprisonment could be as enduring. —New York Commercial Advertiser. Edward Atkinson and his crowd are trying to hide behind the Senate documents as a defense for their treasonable utterances. They imply that because certain things were read, or said, or permitted to go in the Record they are all right. That is begging the question. Some of the rankest treason ever heard tn this country has been uttered on the floor of Congress. That was so in 1860-’6l as well as in 1898-’99.—■ Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Should it eventually be found neoes-

sary to admonish Mr. Edward Atkinson as to bls duty to his country by some form of punishment, it might be advisable to string him up by the thumbs with his toes just touching the floor while relays of talking machines grind out to him renditions of aU bls statistical essays and economical treatises. Thus would a long-suffering reading public be avenged for the millions of words and figures with which this prolific compiler has deluged the presses during the last forty yeara— Washington Star. _ Brigadier General Funston. The promotion of Colonel Frederick Funston, of the Kansas Volunteers, to be a brigadier general, will meet with the general approval of the people, who are bound to say that the President has done exactly right Colonel Funston is deserving of the honor that has been conferred upon him, for he has proved in a dozen engagements in the Philippine Islands that he is a fighter of great courage and a natural leader of men. Not only has be taken a conspicuous part in nearly all the battles, but he has distinguished himself by rare bravery upon special occasions.—Cleveland Leader. Brief Comment. OoL Bryan’s idea that “an idea, once turned loose in the world can never again be chained” is quite an idea. The last New York spread might have been appropriately labeled: “The man who is working the workingmen’s dinner.” The attempt to make President Mo Kinley appear as a usurper and dlo tator and as a sort of modern Caesar will probably not succeed. Most of the anti-expansion writers have lost temper and are tearing passion to tatters. This frequently-hap-pens under disappointment and a growing sense of being in the wrong. There have been traitors in all wars, says a contemporary. They have never yet prevented the rightful settlement of an American war, though they are more of a nuisance than if they fought their country openly. Admiral Dewey says that the government of Aguinaldo is a “severe military despotism.” It takes a man’s head off when be does not come to time. Who knows better, the professors in Mr. Rockefeller’s college In Chicago or Admiral Dewey in the Ptillippinfia ?