tests of their usefulness or disadvantage to society. The popular impression seems to be that these combinations very greatly increase prices to the consumers. On the other hand, the Trust managers and their advocates are in the habit of claiming that, owing to economies of management, the Trusts lower prices to consumers, while at the same time they increase the wages of their employés.

It is, of course, comparatively easy by the selection of statistics at certain chosen periods to show either of these results. It has, in consequence, seemed wisest to secure as far as possible average monthly prices of the leading raw materials and finished products of several of the larger combinations for a series of years, and to plat these on charts in such a way that the relations at all times between the two can be most readily seen. Wherever it has been practicable, European prices have been compared with American, in order that the influence of the Trust itself might more clearly be brought out.

The differential or "margin" between the price of the raw materials and that of the finished product should show, other things equal, the cost of manufacture plus the profit. Un

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Price of granulated sugar.

: Price of raw sugar (German beet root) Difference between H and K.

less one is somewhat guarded, however, one is likely to reach false conclusions, if this assumption is made without qualification. In nearly all processes of manufacture there is a considerable element of waste raw material. As the price of the raw material increases, the value of this waste is also correspondingly increased. In consequence, in order that the profits may be the same, the margin between the price of the raw material and that of the finished product should generally increase slightly with the increase in price of the raw material. Again, when the raw material has to be held in large quantities, so that it involves the investment of considerable capital, it can be readily seen that the interest charge for carrying this raw material is not a little increased as the price of the raw material rises. This, of course, is a factor of less importance than the other, but nevertheless is worthy of consideration.

Sugar *

The lines on the chart represent standard raw and refined sugars in the United States,

* The prices from which the chart has been made were taken from Willett and Gray's Statistical Sugar Trade

England, and Germany. For America raw sugar is represented by 96° centrifugal, and refined by granulated. The English raw sugar, Java Afloat, corresponds closely with the American 96° centrifugal; but the English refined sugar, Tate's Cubes, is a special grade, which normally brings somewhat more than the regular price of granulated sugar-at times, probably, nearly half a cent more. The consequence is that we should expect the margin between the raw and refined in England to be somewhat greater than the American margin between 96° centrifugal and granulated.

The German sugars shown, both raw and refined, are of somewhat poorer quality than the American sugars. The margin between them, other things equal, would be, perhaps, not quite so great as that between the American raw and refined. The fact that it is so much less is due in part, doubtless, to the German

Journal. In the Journal, English and German prices were given in shillings and pence per hundredweight of 112 pounds. They have been reduced to cents per pound in order that comparisons might be more readily made, and the chart more easily platted. The convenient rule for reduction given in the Journal of January 4, 1900, from which the prices of foreign sugars are taken, has been followed.