Show I I 1 1 I 1 TARIFFS AND TRUSTS protection NOT responsible FOR I 1 THE CREATION OF monopolies it If trusts A re to to exist at all it in is 1104 otter that they hh should ld lie in on our own country and subject to our law laws tile the I 1 in tired article articles the tendency of the ago age Is for men to combine where they see profit the standard oil trust is a gigantic aggregation of capital yet what has that to do with tho the tariff the western union telegraph monopoly the insurance combination the trust lately formed by the express companies how are they influenced by protection the tariff far from creating the conditions favorable to the organization of trusts has been the means by which many of them have been destroyed and this will be clearer when we consider the circumstances under which it is most likely that a trust will bo be formed when any class of commodities or facilities for performing services vices are capable of being concentrated in the hands of a few men whether because of natural or artificially created conditions there Is a temptation to combine under free trade the trust would be supreme for then we would be completely at the mercy of great britain for our supply of many articles and this condition would bo be realized before a large supply of a commodity could reach us it would have to be collected in a few seaports there to pass through the bands hands of a few exporters who find a trust the most convenient me means a ns of raising the export price to foreign consumers and this is just what has actually taken place again and again so that there is no country in the world that contains more trusts more obnoxious monopolies than great britain the home of the economic heresy of free trade As manager chattams Cat tarns tams of the general steam navigation company the largest stean steamship iship company in great britain said when testifying before the british royal commission in 1866 1860 of course wo we all have freight rings they can do more than individual ship owners can do to meet foreign competition and they do so these combinations are natural and advantageous and they exist not only antho in alie shipping trade but in every other and I 1 am s sure u re that it is only by such combinations and their accumulation of resources that they are able operatively cooperatively co to meet foreign competition in other words the trust is regarded as the natural result and product of free trade especially for the purpose of breaking down foreign competition what on n the contrary has been the condition in in this country only a few days ago the new york commercial om mercial bulletin itself a stanch free freet trade paper speaking of the steel beam combination eaid said the collapse of this combination illustrates very clearly the danger which every such combination has to confront and before which nearly ev every one of them goes down w the exceptional profits realized are a powerful inducement to other manufacturers and capitalists to engage in the same business the more obstinate and compact the combination shows itself in maintaining prices the more outsider outsiders are convinced that they can afford to en gage in competition wih it the only way to keep buch such a combination alive by whatever name it may be called or under whatever whatever legal forms it may bo be organized is to supply a product to the public v at such a price as to discourage all competition the trusts or corporations which have consistently done this haw hav prospered all others have be been en preparing disaster for themselves though in many cases it has long been deferred I 1 can better testimony be presented trusts flourish under free trade die under protection but there is another aspect to this question if the production of a given i corn com kodity is to be controlled by a trust at all ia is it not better that the trust should be in this country subject to the regulation and punishment of our laws than in I 1 england or some other country where we cannot reach it at least it if it is here wo we can attack it we can destroy it if it is england we wo are helpless and at its inerny protection offers no inducement to trusts but if they are formed wo we can control them thera free trade offers every inducement du lu cement to trusts and when they aro are formed puts them beyond our reach which system will the people prefer |