The New York correspondent of the Manchester Examiner gave last
Saturday an interesting account of the centri- petal forces at work in the great American trades and industries. " Trusts " and " Combines," which are fast developing into exclusive monopolies, are springing up on every side. There are now six great Railway Trusts which, it is believed, will sooner or later unite into one. There is a Tele- graph and a Telephone Monopoly, and a Tramway Combination.
Then there is the Standard Oil Company, which possesses a practical monopoly of the petroleum wells of America, and owns property worth £30,000,000. As exclusive is the Whisky Trust. There were once seventy-two distilleries of high-proof spirit in the States. Now there are but three, for seventy out of the total have combined and form a single concern. Next come the Sugar Trust, formed from sixteen consolidated busi- nesses, and the Rope and Twine Trust, and the Nall Trust, organised on an equally gigantic scale. Besides, there are minor Trusts dealing with pianos, agricultural machines, oranges, and chemicals. To raise prices is the object of all these combinations. In a country open to free competition from abroad, they must, of course, fail, unless they merely content themselves with absorbing the middleman's profits. In America, however, the tariff may for a time ensure success, even if they advance prices to the consumer.
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