Mr. Archibald Coats, the head of the Paisley concern, when twitted with using his monopoly to put up the price of thread, insisted that the advance was due entirely to the higher costs of materials. Moreover, he said, the concern was not a monopoly, that there were in the world 180 thread concerns outside of those in which he was interested. Mr. Coats’s materials were higher—cotton, fuel, spool-wood, had advanced, but on the other hand, Mr. Coats himself called attention to the savings he and his colleagues effected by their combination, both in manufacturing and in selling. These economies the representatives of the American end of the Trust told the Industrial Commission in 1900 were “immense,” “tremendous.” Mr. Coats stated in his report of 1906 that the profits of his concern in the second five years of the combination—that is, after the price of thread went up, and also after the price of materials had gone up—were nearly a third greater than in the first five years. They certainly were highly satisfactory,—a profit of $12,636,000 a year on a capital of $48,600,000 is doing well! The fact seems to be that through a monopoly in this country which it was possible to perfect only because of the high tariff on spool cotton which had cut off all competition from the 180 concerns which in free-trade England might affect him somewhat, Mr. Coats was able to sell his thread here at a higher price than he did in England and to increase his profits in five years by some 33½ per cent, and this in a time when his materials had largely advanced. That is, Mr. Coats and his friends had been able to make the millions of this and other lands bear all the fluctuations and vicissitudes of the thread trade. Whatever happens, he could protect himself and his favored workmen from sharing any of the losses of his business; he could even increase his profits.