“To show how accurate Mr. Schwab was in these statements, and to show how trustworthy was his confident forecast of future profits, I need only cite the following speaking figures from the two annual statements which have been made public by the United States Steel Corporation, namely: Total number of employees: 1902. 1903. 168,127 167,709 Total annual salaries and wages paid: $120,528,343.00 $120,763,896.00 Net earnings: $133,308,763.72 $109,171,152.35 “It will be observed that during these two years the average annual net earnings of the Steel Trust _exceeded the total labour cost of their entire product_!” MEDICINAL PRODUCTS “Turning from the iron and steel industry, we might take quinine, and many other medicinal products; we might take chemicals, many of them most essential in manufacturing industry; we might take borax, which sells in America at seven and one-half cents per pound, and in Britain at two and one-half cents per pound, because the Dingley duty is exactly five cents per pound; we might take mica, a mining product largely used in the electrical, wall-paper and stove-making industries, and which enjoys a modest protection ranging from one hundred and fifty to four thousand per cent. In short, we might take each and every staple product now made in America, and needlessly sheltered by the Dingley duties, and prove, by comparative prices at home and abroad, that the fabulous profits which the gentlemen engaged in these industries are now making—and which they have capitalised into watered “industrials”—are due chiefly and directly to the fostering care of the Dingley Bill, which was designed to protect our ‘infant’ industries.” In the same issue, another correspondent, Mr. W. J. Gibson, shows how the Government serves as a tool of the trusts in tariff exactions. He gives several columns of facts about such outrages as the “Rupee Cases.” For instance: “There have been nine or ten decisions on this one question against the Government, and still the secretary of the treasury refuses to refund the money which the courts have decided so often he has exacted illegally. The money he has directed to be wrongfully assessed and collected, and is retaining in these cases, known as “the Rupee Cases,” amounts to over a million dollars. The parties cannot get any interest for their money so wrongfully withheld, and the customs officials are still being directed to assess all merchandise coming from India on the basis of the rupee at the value of thirty-two cents in our money. This has gone on for more than six years, and against the decision of the United States Circuit Court since January 7, 1899.”