1 14 AMERICAN FARMS. 



who purchasing from it must sell no lower than a certain 

 stipulated price. The result has been that it has not 

 only pocketed at least twenty-five per cent, above free- 

 trade prices, but has, at the same time, compelled its 

 customers to exact combination prices from all con- 

 sumers. These are only a few illustrations of a wide- 

 spread evil.* 



The Montreal Star (Protectionist), speaking of com- 

 bines in Canada, says : '' They are nothing less than a 

 scandalous abuse of the privilege of protection from 

 foreign competition granted to Canadian manufacturers." 



Adam Smith was not far from correct when he said : 

 " The price of monopoly is upon every occasion the 

 highest which can be got ; . . . the highest which can be 

 squeezed out of the buyers." 



At a recent session of the legislature at Albany, New 

 York, the Committee on Trusts gave a very good descrip- 

 tion of the character of the average combine. " How- 

 ever different the influences which give rise to these 

 combinations may be, the main purpose, management, 

 and effect of all upon the public is the same, to wit : the 

 aggregation of capital, the power of controlling the manu- 

 facture and output of various necessary combinations, 

 the acquisition or destruction of competitive properties — 

 all leading to the final and conclusive purpose of annihi- 

 lating competition, and enabling the combinations to fix 

 the price at which they would purchase the raw material 

 from the producer, and at which they would sell the 



' " All the Western pottery manufacturers, with a single exception, 

 have entered into an agreement to maintain prices under bonds of 

 $1,200 each. . . . The greater portion of the pottery industries in 

 the United States are represented in the combination." — Iron Age, 

 item, Oct. 10, 1889 



