p. 9 | Trust Matters

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Jan 6, 1904

Trust Matters

Trust Matters.—A report comes from England to the effect that capitalists are planning to purchase and consolidate all the mines which produce the "ball clay" used in the production of certain kinds of earthenware. There have been a number of actions recently in the courts of Texas against various trusts. Among these have been actions against certain railroad and express companies because of collusion to monopolize the express business of that State and prevent other companies from doing business there. The attorney-general asks that the charters of these companies be revoked. The blast-furnace operators have decided to curtail the production of iron twenty-five per cent. This is for the purpose of keeping up the price of the product. A loss of about $5,000,000 is reported from Wall Street, due to the failure of the United States Realty and Construction Company. The failure of the company was due to the fact that the public would not buy the securities offered. The public's shyness was too strong a test for the watered stock. There seems to have been a setting back in the number of the great trusts with headquarters at New York. The great steel trust has been compelled to cut down its dividend; and the value of its stock, both common and preferred, has suffered reduction. A plan is on foot for the merging of seven large sugar corporations in Hawaii into one concern that will control the sugar business there. German bankers, backed by a very strong combination of capital, are planning to give battle to the Standard Oil trust of America. The latter concern's control of 80 per cent of the German oil trade has long been a source of irritation to the Germans. The Germans have secured extensive wells and refineries in Rumania and Galicia, and the Standard Oil Company has secured similar facilities in Russia. The utter collapse of the great shipbuilding trust at New York, together with the disclosure of the unlawful methods of its management, has done much to enlighten the public on trust affairs in general. To this may be due the present lull in trust formation; but this has in no way quenched the desire of heaping up treasure.