Recently an Industrial Commission has been sitting in Washington. Mr. Havemeyer, the great sugar king, was summoned before the commission to testify as to his knowledge. He was remarkably frank in his admissions, and very clearly showed how the ethics of the question is regarded by the trusts. The following is a very good brief summary of the matter, from the Christian Work:
“Whatever may be thought of Mr. Havemeyer’s surprising statements made last week before the Industrial Commission sitting at Washington, there is no doubt they will occasion deep interest throughout the entire country. Mr. Havemeyer’s testimony is remarkable for its frankness, for its admissions, and for its wholesale repudiation of all ethical considerations. ‘The mother of all trusts is the protective tariff bill,’ said Mr. Havemeyer, whose opening statement was a development of the idea that inordinate protection developed trusts, and an argument to show that, while the present law gave too much protection to nearly everything else, it did not give enough to sugar. To quote Mr. Havemeyer exactly, he declared that ‘the existing tariff bill and the preceding one have been the occasion of the formation of all the large trusts, with very few exceptions, inasmuch as they provide for an inordinate protection to all the interests of the country—sugar refining excepted.’ Passing this phase of the matter, we come to the ethical side of the question. This is the testimony:—
“Mr. Harris—You think it is better for all the competitors to be crushed out but one, who would control?
“Mr. Havemeyer—That’s trade. That’s what has been going on from the beginning, and will continue to go on in spite of legislation.
“Mr. Farquhar—As a matter of ethics, Mr. Havemeyer, is it right for you to pay dividends on $25,000,000 over capitalization? is it fair to get all you can out of the consumers?
“Mr. Havemeyer—I never stated anything different from that. I don’t care two cents for your ethics. We reduce price to prevent competition; that’s all.
“Mr. Havemeyer declared that the tariff enabled the Steel Rail Trust to mulct the public to the extent of $9.00 a ton. Here we leave the matter. As president of the great American Sugar Refining Company, Mr. Havemeyer speaks with the voice of authority, and what he says is sure to arrest public attention, whether his statements are accepted in their entirety or not.”
All of which will not tend to allay the trouble between capital and labor.