"CORNEKS" IN AMERICA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1341, 31 March 1883, Page 3

"CORNEKS" IN AMERICA.

'■-:-Onp«pnjiot take up a newspaper (wrltcwrae American correspondent of the OtngoFaily Times) without seeing ;. the report of some new combination. ■■Yesterday'the starch manufacturers of the Western States united to put an end to'-.the competition that was cutting their profit. The day before tho friction-match men perfected the closest kind of a monopoly. The lire insurance companies have combined to compete no more. Almost before the ; electric light system is proved practicable, the Edison, Grammil, Brush, and other' companies have formed a "pool" in one gigantic concern. The rubber importers made a corner, and the rubber maimfncturers liavo united in self-defence. The iron interests have been in council for over a week in Pittsburg discussing the best method of controlling prices. The fish trade of Boston have just formed a union. Tlie brewers have combined to advance the price of beer. Trade unions are attempts to corner labour j railroad pools —the most gigantic of all combinations —arc corners on tho price of transportation ; the physicans and lawyers of nearly every city are united, and establish a schedule of prices below which none can practise under a penalty. The control of prices in many of tho most important departments of commerce is passing out of the religion of" natural laws of trado" and into the hands of syndicates. Farmers' labourers and some classes of small tradesmen, with the mass of the people, cannot combine except in one direction. Tho Government arc their only remedy. They must do one of two things, They must by legislation, by vigorous prosecution under existing laws, and by concentration of public opinion, break up these omuions combinations or bring them under strictest Government supervision, One part of this problem has already liecome a living issue in some of the States. This is a demand for the regulation of railway rates, But that is but a moiety of tho question. Regulation must follow combination unless the American people arc willing to submit to a despotism in industry that they have demonstrated would not be tolerated in politics, I venture the prediction that startling changes will take place in this country within a very few years.