present form, the German Government will break the agreement in regard
to pork and other agricultural products from this country, and levy such
a heavy tax on them that it will not pay us to export them, so that this
trade with Germany will be ruined.

* * * * *

Mr. Havemeyer is now on trial in Washington for not answering the
Senate's questions in 1894. It is said that if he is found guilty he may
be sent to prison for a whole year, instead of merely for one month, as
Mr. Chapman was.

It would seem as if the Trusts were not going to have it all their own
way any longer. The Coal Trust is now to be looked into.

A referee has been appointed to take testimony about the so-called Coal
Trust, to see if such a combination really exists. If it is found that
there is indeed a Coal Trust, the Attorney-General will take proceedings
against it, and, if possible, break it up.

The Coal Barons are of course fighting this action fiercely.

They declare that the new law, under which their business methods are to
be looked into, is not in accordance with the Constitution of the
country, and that they will not submit to it until the State has proved
that the law is constitutional.

This new law, which was made after the Lexow investigations, only came
into existence on the 7th of May, 1897. It provides that the price or
the supply of an article shall not be controlled by any one, and that an