ONE of the most dishonest combinations which the trust age has developed is the American Sugar Refining Company. There are charged against it dishonesty, trickery, fraud, bribery, and so on ad libitum. Not long ago it submitted to a heavy fine rather than stand trial for exacting rebates contrary to interstate commerce law. Later it has been forced to confess that for thirteen years it had been swindling the government, says The Philadelphia North American, by false weights and tricks with the scales. The North American remarks that an attempt was made to shift the whole blame upon a few scapegoat employees, but the logical conclusion is that the whole thing proves the highly respectable millionaire directors and managers of the giant monopoly to be nothing more nor less than wholesale sneak-thieves. Several years ago the Pennsylvania Sugar Refining Company started. Mr. Geo. Segal, the gentleman who established it, found himself short of money. The American Sugar Refining Company came to his relief, but in a way that Mr. Segal did not suspect that those who were aiding him belonged to the rival firm. The money was loaned Mr. Segal on the conditions that the one who loaned it should name the directors of the sugar refining company, the majority of the stock of which he held as collateral. This enabled the sugar trust which Mr. Segal thought to rival to choose the directors of his company. Of course, it ruined Segal; for the directors voted not to open the refinery. Suit was brought to recover damages. The company went into the hands of a receiver, Mr. George H. Earle. He presented the matter before the previous national administration under the Sherman Antitrust Law and was told that he had not sufficient evidence. Mr. Earle began suit himself, but rather than face a jury the trust submitted to a fine of $2,000,000. Now people are waiting to see whether the government will prosecute the great criminal trust for its illegal operations in various directions. Whatever the government does, the moral turpitude is seen.