Bill (No. 201) for the relief of John-Green.-Mr. Edwards. Bill (No. 202) for the relief of James Thornton Brownrid'ge - Mr. Blain. Bill (No. 203) respecting the Essex Terminal Railway Company.-Mr. A. H. Clarke.
Mr. Albert Allard, member for the elee-torial district of the City of Ottawa, introduced by Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Mr. Mc-Giverin.
On the order of the day being called,
Mr. CAMPBELL.
Since December 7, I have had on the order paper a Bill which I wa^ prepared to discuss, but- which as a matter of courtesy to the Prime Minister who was leaving the House I allowed to stand over until opportunity offered. When may I have that opportunity1?
Sir WILFRID LAURIER.
I believe the Bill related to the question of a member being elected for two different constituencies, its object being to compel him to make an election as to which seat he would sit for. I am glad to say that the committee who are revising the rules have a rule on this subject which I think will meet all the objects my friend seeks to obtain by this Bill.
Hon. MACKENZIE KING (Minister of Labour) moved that the House go into Committee of the Whole to consider the following proposed resolution: Resolved, that it is expedient, in connection with Bill (No. 101) now before this House respecting the investigation of Combines, Monopolies, Trusts and Mergers, which may enhance prices or restrict competition to the detriment of consumers, to provide for the appointment of Boards of Investigation for the purpose of inquiring into alleged combines causing enhanced prices or restricted competition, for the appointment of counsel to conduct investigations before such boards, and for the payment of the members of such boards and of counsel, and of witnesses appearing before the boards, and of all expenses of boards, including transportation expenses incurred by the members thereof, or by persons under orders of such boards, in making investigations under the Act, and salaries of employees and agents and the payment of clerical and other assistance. He said: This resolution is necessary in connection with Bill (No. 101) which I had
the privilege of introducing in this House nearly three months ago. It might be well, perhaps to precede any remarks it may be necessary to make on the second reading of the Bill by some reference to the purpose of the introduction of the measure at this particular time, the object which it is hoped the Bill will serve and the spirit in which the measure has been introduced. There is no question to-day which has attracted so much attention in this country, and particularly in the United States, as the question of the cost of living for the mass of the people of the country. We have during the last few years experienced a serious" and a considerable rise in prices. This increase in the cost of living has not been confined to any one class, rich and poor alike have had some experience of it, but it has had a very serious effect upon men of limited incomes, upon the wageearning classes, upon those whose salaries are fixed and those who do not receive much in the way of remuneration. To one family after another it has meant curtailment of enjoyment, the foregoing of opportunities of education or recreation, a neglect of future needs, and the claims of others for future support, the giving up of insurance policies; to many it, has meant a mode of living less congenial or beneficial to that previously enjoyed, to some, downright privation and hardship; to all sacrifices of one kind or another. That it could not be otherwise, where incomes or wages have not proportionately increased, actual statistics must make apparant enough. It is this question of the cost of living which has helped to make the question, of combines, monopolies, trusts and mergers and the possible effect they may have on prices, so important. In the popular mind there has come to be a gradual association between these two phenomena. In the first place, people have experienced the rise in prices, and in the second place, they have observed the formation in increasing numbers of these large aggregations of capital, and they have got it into their minds that these two phenomena are associated one with the other. I think there may be some reason for that in particular cases, but I believe there are other explanations which will account for the rise in prices than the formation of combines and trusts. Similarly while combines and trusts may have had the effect in some eases of increasing prices, they have not always had that effect, but sometimes an effect entirely different, and I would like the House to understand that in introducing this legislation no attempt is being made to legislate against combines, mergers, and trusts as such; the whole intention is to place some restraint on these large aggregations of capital so that the advantages which may Mr. KING. come from large combinations of -wealth may in some measure be secured to the public, who have helped to make possible these large combinations. It may be interesting to the House to have an idea of how the cost of living has increased in the last few years. I have here a series of charts being prepared at the present time by the Department of Labour. These show in statistical and graphic form the increase that has taken place in the last twenty years for the different classes of commodities in this country. Just taking a casual glance at them one observes that in the past 20 years prices have, broadly speaking, increased something like from 30 per cent to 40 per cent in most of the commodities which are in the nature of the produce of the farm and the field. Manufactured articles have not increased to the same extent, but there has been a very perceptible upward lift during the last ten years over what was the average rate between 1890 and 1900. As a matter of fact prices were at their lowest ebb in 1896 and 1897. Since that time allowing for the temporary depression of 1907, they have gone up steadily, and if we look at the movement from 1896. to the present time, we will see that in some commodities prices have increased as much as nearly 70 per cent or 80 per cent over what was the average in the years 18901900. It would take too long to explain at any length the details, but I would like to indicate what has been the nature of increase that has taken place. These tables have been prepared by Mr. Coats, the associate editor of the ' Labour Gazette.' Mr. Coats- has done very excellent and indefatigable work in the preparation of these tables. The statistics have been gathered for a period of over 20 years past and have been gathered from leading trade journals, market quotations and reliable sources in different parts of the Dominion, and I believe that when the report is prepared we will have one of the best reports on prices ever produced on this continent. Two or three years ago an investigation was made in connection with the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into conditions in the Civil Service and in connection with that investigation a memorial was presented to the commissioners. Referring to this memorial one finds that as the result of an investigation at that time the statement is made that it would be safe to say that for families living in Ottawa on incomes varying from $600 to $900 the rate of advance in the decade from 1897 to 1907 was between 30 per cent and 35 per cent. Of course, the rate of increase in the cost of living will be more considerable to people on smaller incomes. The rates were: Amount of Income. Rate of Increase. $ 300 34% 1,200 30% 2,000 25% These figures might be supplemented from a large variety of sources. Taking the result of the investigation in the Department of Labour to which I have made reference, one finds the following increases in wholesale prices by groups of commodities compared with the average rate for the decade 1890 to 1899 and compared with 1896: Table showing increases in wholesale prices by groups of commodities. Group of Commodities. Percentage of increase in prices, 1909. Compared with decade, 1890-1899. Compared with 1896. Grains and fodder (13 commodities) per cent. 500 per cent. 76-0Animals and meats (14 commodities) 48-6 800Dairy produce (5 commodities) 33 6 48 0Fish (9 commodities) 340 31 0Other foods (37 commodities) 7-6 230Hides, tallow, leather, boots and shoes (11 commodities) 354 45 0Implements (10 commodities) 24 40Fuel and lighting (9 commodities 4'0 5 0Building material- a. Lumber (12 commodities) 54 6 60-0b. Paints, oil, and glass (14 commodities).... 35-2 400House furnishings (15 commodities) 104 140Drugs and chemicals (1G commodities) 40 50Miscellaneous- a. Furs (4 commodities) 127 2 180 0b. Liquors and tobaccos (4 commodities) .... 17 5 200All 173 commodities. . 260 40-0 It will be seen that on certain classes of commodities, the classes on which the masses of the people mainly depend, grain, fodders, animals, and meats, dairy produce, and foods, hides, leathers, boots and shoes, and the like, the increase has been very much higher than the average, it has ranged anywhere from 30 per cent to 50 per cent. These figures are borne out by investigations made in other countries. Recently the Department of Labour of the United States made an investigation into wholesale prices for the years from 1890 to 1907. The Department of Labour there found that for the year 1907 the highest recorded level of prices was reached since 1890. The rise from 1897, the low point as worked out by the department is 44.4 per cent.
Mr. LENNOX.
The hon. minister has mentioned that although combines generally had a tendency to enhance prices, there were instances in which they had riot that effect. Would he mention an instance?
Mr. KING.
I am not aware of having said that combines generally increased prices. I said that in some cases I thought that they had, and in others, I did not think they had.
Mr. LENNOX.
Will the hon. minister mention an instance in which they had not that effect?
Mr. KING.
I am comng to that point a little later on. Recently the House at Washington ordered a special investigation into the causes of the increased cost of food, and other products. I have here a report from the Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labour, transmitting tables giving percentages of the increase in prices of food and other products. This investigation corroborates in many details that made by the Canadian Department of Labour, showing that prices have increased during the last decade from 25 up to 50 and 70 per cent in the different classes of commodities in the United States. A comparison between the movement of prices in this country and the United States and Great Britain would go to show that, in all three countries, they have risen materially, but that the rise has been more considerable in the United States than in Canada, and in Canada than in Great Britain.
Mr. EDWARDS.
How does the rise in prices of agricultural' products in Canada compare with their rise in the United States?
Mr. KING.
It would take considerable time to go through the figures in individual cases, but I shall be very glad at any time to give information on those points later. In the discussion in committee we can take up the individual subjects. I would ask hon. gentlemen to allow me to make a general statement in the first place.
Mr. R. L. BORDEN.
The best course would be to take a note of any information desired and endeavour to give that in committee.
Mr. KING.
Referring to another source, a record of prices on 96 commodities compiled by Bradstreets on January 1, 1910, shows that prices in the United States, on that date had reached an absolutely high
Teeord mark. The increase is 61 .per cent over the figures of July, 1896, which was the lowest price touched by Brad-streets calculations. Mr. Blue, the Census Commissioner for the Dominion, prepared a statement two or three years ago regarding the increase in the cost of living in this country, and he found that there had been, during the fifteen years from 1892 to 1896, an Increase in the prices of food products, ranging from 15 to 20 per cent. In 1906, there had been a rise which would bring the increase up to a larger percentage. Then there have been three or four other important investigations conducted by different bodies.
Throughout the Dominion the steady increase in the cost of living, especially since the beginning of the present century, has been the subject of repeated comment, and, in almost every city or centre of employment, of more or less careful examination. In 1906 the Ontario Educational Association went carefully into the whole matter, in connection with the arrangement of teachers' salaries, with the result that an increase amounting to thirty per cent in 10 years was shown. In 1907 an estimate . made by the Synod of the Church of England in the city of Quebec placed the increase within the decade at a much higher rate. In the city of Toronto, an investigation conducted with care and minuteness during 1907, by the Department of Political Economy of the University of Toronto, also showed a higher rate of increase. These examples could be multiplied.
All show upward movement since 1896- 30 to 35 per cent higher than the average for 1890-99 ; 40 to 45 per cent higher average, 1896-97. ,
The cost of living has increased from 30 to 40 per cent in the case of incomes ranging from $2,000 down to $500. That is a fact which has impressed itself upon all classes of the community. Now what has the community been witnessing in another direction ? We find the increase in the cost of living going on simultaneously with the organization of capital on a large scale, the formation of trusts, mergers and combines of one kind or another. I have the figures here with regard to combines in the United States, and these combines have had their effect on the people of this country, as well as those of the United States. Quoting from Nelson's Encj^clopedia of 1909, which has the latest information gathered on the subject, I find that :
Down to 1898 the number of trusts formed (in the United States) was small. From 1898 to 1900 not less than 149 such combinations with a capitalization of over three billion dollars was formed. A large number of combinations have been effected since 1900, the most important of which was the United States Steel Corporation with a capitalization of $1,400,000,000. The aggregate Mr. KING.
capitalization of such corporations in 1906 is variously estimated at from six to eight billion dollars. . . . The Sugar Trust, it has been estimated, controls ninety per cent of the output of refined sugar in the United States; the Standard Oil Company sixty-five per cent; the Rubber and Paper Trusts about seventy per cent of their respective products; the Steel Trust less than sixty per cent. The six great packing companies -the ' Beef Trust '-slaughtered only about forty-five per cent of the cattle killed in the United States in 1903. The Salt Trust controls over eighty per cent of the salt produced in the country, and the Starch Trust about ninety per cent of the starch. Where *the proportion of the industry not controlled by the trust appears to be considerable, as in the case of the Standard Oil Company, allowance must be made for the output of companies ostensibly independent, but in reality controlled by the trust. Furthermore, while in some industries a large proportion of the business may be in fact as well as in name independent of the trust, as m the case of the slaughtering industry, the great combination, nevertheless, controls certain markets without much interference from competitors. The six great packing companies furnish 75 per cent of the beef consumed in New York; in Boston they furnish over 85 per cent; in Philadelphia and Pittsburg 60 per cent; in Providence more than 95 per cent. In the greater part of the smaller cities and towns of New England the trust furnishes more than three-fourths of the consumption.
I shall not weary the House with statistics of the growth of trusts in the United States, but will refer hon. gentlemen to a book written by Mr. John Moody, entitled, ' The Truth About Trusts,' in which they will find tabular statements regarding the large amalgamations in the United States during the last ten years, the number of plants acquired or controlled and the total capitalization, stocks and bonds outstanding. An analysis of these figures slightly in detail would show that of the industrial trusts 15 have $100,000,000 capitalization or over, 33 have $50,000,000 or over, 165 have $10,000,000 or over, and 451 have $5,000,000 or over. Of the franchise trusts 16 exceed $100,000,000, 41 exceed $50,000,000, and 156 exceed $5,000,000. Of the six greatest railroad groups, all exceed $1,000,000,000 capital.
These figures should make every one realize the tremendous power thus vested in the hands of a few men and point to the necessity for some agency in the direction of state control to see that this power is not exercised to the detriment of individuals or the public. No exception can be taken to a trust doing all that is justifiable to further the interests of those whose capital is invested in it, but the business should be carried on with due regard to the interests of the large body of consumers who make up society.
Sir WILFRID LAURIER.
Hear, hear.