Show NO TRUSTS IN ENGLAND or MR BLAINES WHOLLY harold frederic cables to the new york times as follows only a sentence of blaines Bl alnes portland speech has been cabled here but that one is comprehensive enough to make every monopolist regret the day that submarine telegraphy was made possible this sentence reports blaine as saying A protective tariff no more breeds what the president calls the pestilence estil enoe of 0 trusts than does the fest free trade country cpu which is aag land tor for england is literally plastered over overa under her system of free trade with trusts vl during the past two days I 1 have shown this statement to some 40 representative englishmen bankers solicitors to r s auditors au ditora and the h beads 0 of great iron r 0 cottlo woolen railroad minine and other enterprises without a solitary exception they denied blaines Bla laes statement flatly to almost all of them I 1 had first to explain what a trust was they knew neither it nor any famil familiar lai euclish Eo glish equivalent for it here and there some or of them recalled some vaguely analo analogous sous ous combination in a small way or er mr chamberlains ber lains celebrated screw maneuver was spoken of as the nearest approach to a trust that any could remember which was an operation very similar to the creation of the diamond match company la in america some som eyears scars ago betit but ft was properly pointed out that this thip has bas always been held field over chamberlains ber lains head bead as a political weapon and to this day is used against him in partisan warfare which shows that such action in the public mind is both unusual and somewhat shady but dental denial of blaines Bl aises assertion need not rest on OB the general and anonymous evidence of business men selected at random unfortunately the parliamentary recess has bias taken out of town moat of the heads beads of the government departments dealing with trade statistics but I 1 was lucky enough to find two officials of recognized knowledge and weight of character one of these is alfred milner a distinguished fellow of oxford and private secretary to the chancellor of the exchequer a position equal in im importance per tance and a not influence to that of first assistant secretary of the treasury in america mr air milner said the statement that a trust or anything like a trust is common in england is absolutely false I 1 marvel at any man committing himself to an assertion so bare barefaced faced and so capable of prompt and complete refutation there are certain small local enterprises no doubt in lines which lend themselves to specialization which the large producers have from time to time combined against the small ones I 1 suppose that has been done since the dawn of commerce but the combinations are in the nature of what you call corners and will by no BO means be permanently organized monopolies I 1 do not know of the existence in england of a tingle ingle trust in the american sense of the word unless it may be this new cheshire salt trust now being mentioned in the papers and this is not only an evident imitation of the amerlean american model but it will not by any means create a monopoly but the figures of the income tax give you a better proof ot of this than any assertion of mine ilni here is the return u under der schedule D that is limited to the profits of individuals individual ti and private firms in inen eda land in business for the decade 1877 86 the number of incomes between and 1000 increased increaser d during the decade 19 26 per cent the number of overE over 1000 decreased 2 40 per cent this is plain proof of the steadily growing distribution of the profits ortrude of trade and commerce e among the small manufacturers and traders these figures alone would make nonsense ot of mr blaines talk robert griffon griffen the celebrated statistician ician of the board of trade is ab sent in scotland but his bis representative in office alfred E bateman is one of the principals of the department and also the secretary of the royal statistical society ile he said we scarcely know what the word trust means over here should hardly know myself if I 1 had not had bad occa sion aion as a part of the work tor for our sugar sugar bouat bounties Ios conference here t to read rea up about your sugar suar trust trus practically such a thing as a trust does not exist here the board of trade nas lass never had occasion to reckon with the trust as eien even a trivial factor in the commercial life of the country there ate a few lines ot production here in which from time to time attempts are made to create temporary combinations bi for the temporary tempo temp iary control of the market these are in commodities like tin where the sources of production are FO limited that halt half a dozen men can control themi them but these combinations are more analogous to your corners in wheat or coffee than permanent openly organ iced trusts they are really stock speculations more like your trusts which are worked under patents mostly in ilk the way of chemicals but thase would be incidental ci joany country where there is a patent right and have no bearing on your Our question it mr blaine wants to find substantial and powerful trusts let him look to germany they have got their iron rail and plate trusts working very successfully an and the tendency there to t combinations of that sort to is one of f the most marked features of the german industrial situation but he is all wrong about england being plastered with trusts I 1 entirely I 1 assure you |