SPECIAL REPORTS FOR FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, 161

Recently it has been alleged that there is a “bathtub trust?” in
Canada, through the association of the Amherst Foundry Co., Amherst,
 Nova Scotia; the Standard Ideal Co., of Port Hope, Ontario;
and the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Co., Toronto. These companies
 are said to have signed an agreement by which they undertake
to pay an additional 24 per cent to jobbers buying only goods of these
companies and additional premium of 8 per cent to jobbers who do
not offer for sale any of these companies’ goods at less than manufacturers’
 established prices.
Government attitude in regard to trade combinations.—In Canada,
as in the United States, the er gor or trust, so called, has been
largely regarded by the general public as something to be “busted,”
and since 1888 the question of fegislation and regulations to safeguard
 the public from the possible evil effects of monopolistic combinations
 has been given considerable attention by the Parliament
of Canada. Canadian legislation, however, has not been framed
with the idea that the trust or industrial combination is inherently
wrong. The positing that an industrial amalgamation may exist
for perfectly legitimate purposes has been recognized, and a trade
ry in Canada may use every legitimate means to advance
the interests of its members. It must not, however, undermine the
public welfare or encroach upon the rights of others, and in order
to prevent anything of the kind the Dominion has passed certain
legislation.
In 1888 a committee of the House of Commons was appointed to
examine into and report on the nature, extent, and effect of certain
trade combinations. The committee made a full investigation and
found there were at the time combinations among coal dealers, coffin
manufacturers, watchcase manufacturers, binder-twine, cordage, and
stove manufacturers, and that a powerful association for the purpose
of raising and maintaining the rates of insurance, which included
nearly all the stock companies—British, American, and Canadian—
existed in Canada. The committee found that “the evils produced
by combinations had not been fully developed in the country, but
that sufficient evidence of their injurious tendencies and effects had
been given to justify legislative action for suppressing evils arising
from these and similar combinations and monopolies.” Following
the report of this committee, legislation was introduced into Parlia.
ment and passed and now appears in an amended form in the Re-5
 Statutes of Canada as sections 496. 497, and 498 of the Criminal
ode.
In 1897 the minister of finance introduced a section into the tariff
act empowering the governor in council to remove or reduce customs
duties on any article of commerce, in respect of which any combination
 might have been formed to unduly enhance prices or otherwise
unduly promote advantage of manufacturers and dealers at the expense
 of consumers, and where such disadvantage to consumers was
facilitated by customs duties. This section with some amendments
is now contained as the law in clause 12 of the customs tariff of 1907.
In 1904, following investigations made by Government commissions
 into an alleged combine among Canadian paper manufacturers
and into an alleged exclusive contract system enforced by the American
 Tobacco Co. and the Empire Tobacco Co., in both of which cases
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