BRITISH TRUSTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 July 1919, Page 3

BRITISH TRUSTS.

£32,000,000 ELECTRIC WORKS COMBINE. The report of the committee on trusts and combines, appointed last year, is published by the Ministry of Reconstruction. .The committee recommends the establishment of a "Tribunal of Investigation" for promptly dealing with abuses which come to light. When it is proved that acts injurious to public interest have been committed, the Board of Trade shall make recommendations as to State action for the remedying of grievances. Referring to the vast increase of trusts and combines, the committee state that the combinations range frqpi periodical meetings of coal merchants for, fixing prices to associations with capital in millions. In the electric industries there is an association with a capital of £33,000,000. Thcv also quote Messrs Cqats, Ltd., with £10,000,000, and the United States Steel Corporation with £369,000,000 capital. £35,000,000 MEAT PROFITS. As dn illustration of the effect of a trade combination in one industry affecting both this country and America, the committee refer to the report of the Federal Trade Commissioner on the meat-packing industry, issued at Washington in 1918, in which information is givqn of the activity of the Meat Trust, or the "Big Five," practically the only source from which the Allies could obtain supplies. "The power of the Big Five in the United States," stated the report, "has been and is being unfairly and illegally used to: Manipulate live-stock markets"; supplies of food; control the prices of dressed meat and other foods; defraud both the producers of food and consumers; crush effective competition; secure special privileges from railroads, stockyard companies, and municipalities; and profiteer. "The packers' profits in 1917 were more than four times as great as in the average year before the European war." j