THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1903.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12799, 21 October 1903, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1903.

IANTI-TIIBST LEGISLATION. The report oil trusts and anti-trust legislation prepared by the Secretary for Labour and recently laid on the table of tho House as an interesting document and contains a great deal of valuable information concerning the working of trusts in the United States, the United Kingdom, and in several of the European countries, and it-lie legislative attempts which have tieen made to control and regulate their operations. At the outset this report seems to recognise that in the existing condition of the commercial world it would be a calamity to endeavour to strangle all trusts by adverse legislation, but that so great are the evils attaching to their uncontrolled operations that they must bo regulated efficiently by Act of l'arliameitfc; and, whilst it cannot be claimed that the people of New. Zealand have

suffered to any appreciable extent from tho tyranny of the trust evil, yet there are signs of a treud in that direction, and therefore this report is timely in its appearance. The definition of a trust hero given is "a corporation or combination of corporations into unity for the purpose of amalgamating plants and properties, ccouomising expenses, buying and selling to best advantage, ousting competition, and controlling markets." Did this definition stand without qualification it would include at least half a dozen corporations at present trading in the colony, but following the definition comes the admission that "all corporations are not to be considered trusts, unci this not. only on account of their organisation or motive for existence, but because many of them have influence for gcod, and remain not only above reproach but above suspicion." These ''irreproachable combinations" are therefore left out of the inquiry; whilst, as typical of trusts which form a menace to the public weal, the Standard Oil Company, the United States Steel Corporation, the Consolidated Tobacco Company, and the Anthracite Coal Trust are specially held up to reprobation as forming "absolute storm centres of industrial life in the United States." It is urged on behalf of the trusts that by reducing the cost, of production they have won a place for American enterprise in the international industrial world, and tluit they distribute their profits amongst a large number of shareholders. On the other band, the evils wrought by the trusts as- experienced in the United States are thus summarised(l) Over-capitalisation or 'watering of stock'; (2) secrecy, or lack of publicity in organisation and conduct; (3) destruction of competition by underselling; (4.) management of institutio'n by absentee? for benefit of absentee capital; (5) management for private •benefit of officials: (6) destruction of local public spirit; (7) povrer to corrupt elections and bribe parliaments; (8) power to influence courts and set the j law at defiance; (9) absence of personal liability for illegal actions; (10) Holding vast properties without. taxation; (11) shutting down mills, mines, etc., at will and. throwing thousands out of employment; (12) the use of boycott and blacklist; (13) fraudulent opposition to patents and the use of patents; (14) discrimination in tariffs and rebates." It was a consideration of these advantages and evils which led a member of tho Washington House of Representatives to declare only as recently as February last that "the trusts are not a cancer on the body politic, they are not an excrescence on the body politic; they are a part of tho vital principle of the body politic. They need to be properly regulated and watched and controlled just the same as any vital organ of the body needs to be; but, in like manner, they need to be guarded from violent injury." The evidence further goes to show that even in cases where trust operations tend in the direction of cheapening prices to the consumer, this apparent advantage is quite overshadowed by the absence in tho choice of masters on,the part of tho worker, the increase of child labour, and the bad effect on the national character of the increase of corporate influence. Thus we have the spectacle of American workmen compelled by their employers to obey certain rules of life— that is to sny, the trust looks upon the worker as a mere machine to be fed, clothed, and housed so as to be effective for the maximum amount of work in a given time. For example, the men must be teetotallers, they must live in villages which the employer establishes for them, and they are subject to continued surveillance. In the workshops private detectives are introduced to hud out what the men are saying and doing. The preponderance of opinion is strongly in favour of tho.proposition that much of the power of trusts is owing to protection by tariff; but this is only the case where the particular trust lias an entire monopoly of the goods manufactured and sold. Another grievance is the discrimination exercised between home and foreign prices, the goods being sold abroad at a much lower rate than that-1 charged in the home market. The remedies for the trust evil mainly advocated in the United States are publicity and taxation. President Roosevelt, is of opinion that in the publication of the accounts of all largo corporations will probably be found the remedy for most of the abuses complained of, and it is argued that, such publicity would not militate against the usefulness of banks, insurance companies, etc., but rather the reverse. It is further suggested— presumably by Mr Tregoar— that when full publicity lias thrown its light on every phase of trust organisation, on every bonus, dividend, preference of stock, etc., there may then be devised stringent systems of taxation to keep down unfair profits and prevent extortion from the public. No serious objection can be taken to the publicity proposal, 'but the suggestion concerning taxation comes perilously near Mr Tom Mann's proposal to rid the State of the holders of private property. He would

" tax the holder of land until lie is glad to hand it back to the State," from which 'lie was once criminal enough to buy it. 'j.'iie report concludes with a summary of the anti-trust- legislation enacted in the United States, which has formed the model of Mr Seddou's Monopoly Prevention Bill, and with a brief reference to trusts in Europe and the United Kingdom.