AN INTERNATIONAL TRUST.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 149, 23 December 1908, Page 6

AN INTERNATIONAL TRUST.

A cable message in The Post of yester•day reports, on the authority of the Washington correspondent of the London Standard, that a new international combination of capitalists has been or is being formed, with Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan as its leading spirit. The 'object is said to be the formation of a gigantic trust which shall unite the preponderant trade interests in "steel rails, timber, paper, leather, chemicals, oils, and tin-plates" — all specifically enumerated — with a. view to cornering the world's industries, and stifling competition. Just how much credit should be given to an intimation of this kind it is impossible to say ; but the chance that it is literally true is small. The last thing the promoters of such a scheme would do is to talk about it beforehand. ' The growth of American trusts has been made possible only because, in their Inception and operation, their dealings have been shrouded in the greatest secrecy. Publicity is recognised as fatal to the trust ; and tho recent achievement of putting J. D. Rockefeller in the witness-box, to tell the profits of the Standard Oil Corporation, is a legal success which has been striven ior in vain during a quarter of a century. The mere announcement that there is contemplated such a combination as the Standard's correspondent affirms, is, in the present excited state of American opinion, sufficient to defeat the combination. Even a rumour of the kind is likely to cause a whirlwind of popular indignation, with its consequence of panic legislation disastrous to the existing trusts. So true is this that it seems highly probable that the report is merely another weapon in the anti-trust campaign. The difficulties in the way of such a gigantic scheme, too, are so enormous that they seem unconquerable. The "combine" is by no means always successful, and the result of Mr. Morgan's operations in the Atlantic shipping trad?, however satisfactory to Mr. Morgan, have been by no means wholly satisfactory to the owners and companies in the pool. Tho American business invasion of England, which six or seven years ago was reported as likely to -cause a trade revolution in the effete old island, has been rebuffed -at most points, and at most others has settled down to a slow siege. Nor is it clear what community of interest there can be on so many different lines of production as the Standard's correspondent recites. How are leathermakers to be associated with papermakers, for example ? At its truest, therefore, the message can only refer to a combination of capitalists, not of producers. And at its least true, it is possibly another step in the attack on the trusts. So much recently has been done to. i r-rousc and confirm the American popular dislike of the trust, that, given a storm of feeling, it would not be difficult to compel Congress to pass legislation wiping trade combinations out of existence. Considering President Roosevelt's utterances, the success of Mr. Taft, definitely put forward as his candidate at the recent Presidential ejection, can only be taken as a grave warning to Napoleonic millionaires, striving to monopolise articles of general utility. And even the success of Mr. Taft represents for American financial magnates the least of possible evils. The success of Mr. Bryan meant for them something infinitely worse, for Mr. Bryan would give the trusts no quarter. And behind Mr. Bryan was the Socialist candidate, with a still more ominous policy. Far from extending their operations, it is likely that during the next few years the people who control trusts will find themselves unable to preserve their present legal footing. Much has already been done to limit their power. Seme time ago the United States Attor-ney-General was able to say that the legislation affecting trusts was satisfactory to the Administration, abd that the prompt response of Congress to President Roosevelt's requests . was very gratifying. The giving and taking of railway rebates is now prohibited in the United States by a law capable of effective enforcement against corporations as well as against individuals, and the courts are clothed with jurisdiction to restrain and punish violations. .The Act creating the Department of Commerce vests in that department complete ■ authority to investigate the organisation and business methods of corporations engaged in inter-State and foreign commerce, and to that end to compel the testimony of persons having the desired knowledge. Under the provisions of this Act a fair opportunity is afforded to test the effect of the tendency towards industrial monopoly, since it provides a guarantee that no favour will be allowed to the great producer as against the small one. The law to expedite the hearing of cases* in giving an appeal directly to the Supreme Court from the court of first instance, assures within a reasonable time authoritative decisions upon important pending questions, by the knowledge of which future legislation, if necessary, can be confidently framed. Most important of all, the American people is thoroughly awake to the evil of trusts. By a thousand books and ten thousand newspapers their sinister methods have been exposed ; and their history in the last century is likely never to be repeated in America.

An optimihtic view is taken of tho 1909 tourist season in New Zealand by the general manager of the Tourist Department. Visitors from Australia are expected to arrive in greater numbers than ever befoie. Te Aroha and Rotorua were filling up xvell, and the accommodation at Hanmer, Waikaremoana, Mount Cook, and Qucenstown was in great request. There was the usual number of Englieh touneta in the Do-