il rose from thirty-eight cents to fifty-two cents; and this
price was kept up or exceeded during 1888. That is to say, every
purchaser of linseed oil, or every one who had occasion to have
painting done, pays to the members of this trust, for every gallon of
oil that he uses, about fourteen cents _over and above_ the sum which he
would pay if competition were allowed to do its usual work in keeping
down prices.

What profits are the members of this trust making? Let us suppose that
they were just able, at the old price of thirty-eight cents per gallon,
to pay all their running expenses and four per cent. on the capital
invested, making nothing for profits beyond a fair salary to the
managers of the business. Then the gain of fifteen cents a gallon in the
selling price is _clear profit_ to them. Now add to this the fact, which
was plainly brought out in the foregoing supposed statement by a member
of the trust, that it is possible by means of the trust to greatly
reduce expenses in many directions as well as to increase receipts, and
we begin to form some conception of the profits which this trust is
harvesting. If we wish to put the statement in figures, suppose we take
the annual consumption of linseed oil in the country at thirty million
gallons. Then the profits of the trust from the increased prices alone
will amount to four and one half million dollars per annum.

There is another way in which trusts directly affect the public, which
has received very much less attention than it deserves. Besides the
people who use the linseed oil and pay the trust an extra fourteen cents
a gallon for the privilege, there are a great number of people who would
have used oil if the price had not advanced, but who cannot afford to do
so at the advanced price. It is a well-known fact that every increase in
the price of any article decreases the demand, and the advance in the
price of linseed oil has undoubtedly had a great effect in decreasing
the consumption of oil. So while it is undoubtedly true that _at the
trust's prices_ there are more linseed-oil mills in the country than are
needed to supply its wants, yet if the prices were lowered to the point
which free competition would fix, there would probably be demand enough
to keep all the mills running. To the trust, then, must be ascribed the
final responsibility for the stoppage of the mills and the loss of
employment by the workmen. Nor does the effect upon the labor market
stop