punishable. Such an anti-trust law was passed by Congress recently, and the Republicans “point to it with pride.” But who believes in its effectiveness? Who does not know that such combinations or trusts, if attacked in their original shape, can easily reform themselves in a variety of shapes, so as to become lawful in form, while yet pursuing their original purpose? What, then, is the anti-trust law? A lightning-rod to prevent the popular feeling against the trusts from striking the tariff.
I have before me a list of twenty-seven industries carried on under trusts, combinations, agreements or understanding of various kinds, having the control of production and of prices in view.
Almost all these industries produce, directly or indirectly, things of common use, the prices of which are of great importance to people of all classes, especially those of limited means. What, then, have we to expect of such combinations under the present tariff? Let us hear Senator Sherman, a protectionist of old standing and a statesman high in Republican councils. Before the final vote on the tariff bill was taken in the Senate, he spoke these words:
The great danger of this tariff, and of all schemes for building up domestic industries by law, is that the beneficiaries themselves, capitalists and laborers alike, will not be content to realize the advantages they enjoy, but will combine and confederate in order to cheat the people of that which they have a right to enjoy. This protective policy must not degenerate into monopoly,—into trusts or combinations to raise prices against the spirit of the common law. I do hope now that this bill, when it becomes a law, will be acted upon by the manufacturers judiciously; that they will avoid those contracts which have been made and which have occasioned popular discontent; that they will invite fair competition, and that they will give the benefit of this competition to the people in
