The leading brand of thread which was sold in 1900 at 6 cents in New York and about half that in England, is made by J. & P. Coats, Limited, of Paisley, Scotland, and by the Coats thread combination in this country. The Coats House is the oldest and most progressive thread house in the world. It early saw the advantage of establishing a factory in the United States and competing for the American trade under the protection of the tariff. Other English firms also saw the advantage, chief among them the Clarke Mile End Spool Cotton Company of Newark, New Jersey. A few years ago the Coatses realized that a combination of the English concerns doing business here would be profitable, and one was brought about, the products of the amalgamation being handled by the Spool Cotton Company of New York City. In 1897 some sixteen of the English competitors of the Coats’s concern combined in a $10,000,000 trust, called the English Sewing Cotton Trust. The J. & P. Coats Company took $1,000,000 of the stock, and at least once since has helped the organization out of trouble by lending it $2,000,000. Thus the two concerns are working together. The next year, after the English combination was formed—1898—an American Thread Trust Company was formed. It was made up of the thirteen leading American concerns,—all, indeed, but one of the large domestic companies went into it. No sooner was this done than the English Trust bought the majority of the American Trust’s stock. Here, then, was an English Trust owning and controlling the American Trust and dictating its policy from the other side of the water. And this British Trust was affiliated and partly owned by the still larger concern, the J. & P. Coats Company. It comes down to this, that the $48,000,000 Coats concern controls practically the thread business of England and America. No sooner was the English control complete here than the price of thread was advanced.