THE WAYS OF TRUSTS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14133, 12 February 1910, Page 7

THE WAYS OF TRUSTS.

COST OF LIVING IN AMERICA. Of flic ways of trusts and their extortions the New York correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph cables a lively account. '‘Americans,” he says, “and more particularly those in the Eastern States, are feeling tho pinch of prosperity with a vengeance. With the sympathy and co-operation of tho Milk Trust and tho Beef Trust, it is now announced that a Bread Trust is about to liegin operations, with a capital of £8,000,000, mainly to extract an extra halfpenny a loaf from tho pockets of the people, as tho Milk Trust has already done by adding u cent per quart to tho cost of milk, and as tho Beef Trust has added innumerable cents per pound to the price of meat. Tho latest trust is essentially a western concern, backed with western capital, and the direct support of the great western milling concerns. It has-received into its 'sphere of influence’ in tho proposal to corner the price of bread in tho metropolitan district most of the big bread bakers of New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Hoboken, and, according to the big wholesale dealers in flour at New York, the Bread Trust spells ‘ruin’ for the proprietors of small bakeries in and around tho city of New York. “To fight these organised efforts at extortion it is suggested that consumers here shall form a trust, and steps have already been taken in this direction. I don’t , think it will lie successful, because money is plentiful just now, wages are high, and Americans have long been accustomed to pay just, what is imposed by the trusts. IV© shall kick a bit, that is all, and early in January shall pay our extra halfpenny per loaf. “Official figures show that during the Inst few years the cost of living here has advanced 88 per cent., and the salaries of mechanics and tho middle classes have remained stationary. Notwithstanding these advances in prices, however, it is still true that the a verage American has n bigger margin for saving than the European, and while trade is good, ns at present, and employment ample, ho will continue paying and kicking until a slump arrives, when the philanthropic trusts will temporarily reduce the price of necessities.”