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been the case that these speculative efforts to put up prices have quickly come to an end. They have seldom done any considerable harm. As a rule, the only persons who are seriously injured are the speculators. They are entitled to small sympathy. They are, almost invariably, the only sufferers.

But it is thought by many men, that some new feature is introduced into the situation to-day, by the creation of these large modern corporations, which own and control these large modern combinations of capital. We have invented a new name for these combinations. We call them "trusts." The new name has given rise to a new

terror.

But is there really any feature in the problem which is essentially new?

A satisfactory answer to this question requires a statement of some of the facts as to recent industrial development.

The extensive use of the corporation, in the industrial and financial world, can hardly be said to go further back than the earlier part of the nineteenth century. Prior to that time the world's industries and its commercial operations were conducted on a smaller scale. Corporations had been formed and used mainly for political and charitable purposes. Towns, cities and states, were different forms of municipal corporations. Church institutions, colleges, schools, and hospitals were generally owned and conducted by charitable corporations. But with the increased use of machinery, which began in the early part of the nineteenth century, the amounts of capital required for manufacturing and other business purposes led gradually to a great increase in the use of corporations. This increase became continually greater with the growth of scientific knowledge, and the consequent increase in the power of man over the material forces of Nature, especially with the modern development of the new forces of steam and electricity, and the consequent increase in the use of coal and iron, for the purposes of manufacture and transportation. When each separate farmer's family made its own wool into cloth and clothing, when mankind generally used only hand tools, before they began to use what we term machinery, there was compara

tively slight need of our modern large combinations of capital. But with the continued increase in man's knowledge of the great forces of Nature, with the continued development of new manufacturing processes, and the consequent enlargement of the masses of men, money, and material, required in the organization and operation of our great modern industries and systems of transportation, it is easily seen that the corporation became an indispensable necessity in the modern industrial world. Our immense modern combinations of men, material, and capital, without the use of corporations, are an impossibility. Without these great industrial, transportational, and financial corporations, the modern industrial world must come to a standstill, and modern civilization could not exist. Without these great corporations, with their great masses of capital, it is a practical impossibility to construct and operate our large railroad systems, or our large manufacturing plants, without which we must revert to the petty processes, and the petty methods of the middle ages. Men revile corporations, and resort to every possible method to annoy them, and impede their transaction of business. But they do so without due study and thought. Corporations are an absolute necessity to our modern industrial world. Every one of these great instruments, whatever be the wishes of its controllers, is compelled to be the servant of society. The larger the mass of capital, the more complete is the financial necessity, which compels its owners to keep it in constant operation, and to sell its products at prices which purchasers are willing to pay. The owners of these large masses of invested capital cannot afford to allow the capital to lie idle. It must be earning dividends. It can do so only by making large sales of its product. Experience shows that there is only one way to do this, and that is by giving low prices. Consequently the universal experience is, that whatever be the original purpose of the magnates who form these large combinations of capital, the invariable result is, in time—and in no long time-to put down prices. The reason is, that the lowering of prices always increases profits. So it happens, in a way that seems almost mysterious, that although the purpose of the men who form the large modern " corporate trusts" is invariably the suppression of competition, with a

large resulting profit to themselves, they always in the end secure that profit by conferring a benefit on the community at large in the shape of lower prices.

It may be said, that the creation of these large masses of capital involves a pernicious result in the suppression of small competing individuals.

That result may be conceded. Success in cheapening production, resulting in a consequent lowering of prices, whether by corporations or individuals, always results for the time in loss to competitors. That is the law of industry. Shall we therefore put an end to the lowering of prices, which must almost always come, as all experience shows, only from the processes of consolidation and concentration?

To this question there can be but one reasonable answer. Consolidation and concentration must go on. The single individual who is undersold, must betake himself to some other employment-either as a subordinate in his former line of work, or in any capacity he sees fit in some new line. Even he is not injured permanently. But even if he were, we must have industrial progress. The single individual must change his methods. There is in late years too much sentimentality over the individual. As matter of fact, the individuals who fail at one calling betake themselves to some other. In one way or another, those of them who are honest and industrious, in the long run, get a living.

The conclusion then is, at this point of our study, that these large aggregations of capital, which to-day we term "corporate trusts," are an absolute necessity in our modern industrial world; that they result, in the end, in large benefits to the community; that the evils incident to their creation are the necessary results of competition in any form, whether between corporations or individuals; that the only new feature in these new aggregations of capital is their magnitude; and that, consequently, they introduce in the industrial and legal world no new feature in kind, but merely in degree.

Consequently, there would seem to be no new legal problems. The old, well-established principles, and the old, well-established rules, would seem to be quite adequate to the situation.

But, it may be said, corporations have their advantages, but they have, on the other hand, their disadvantages. It may be said, these vast combinations of capital put too much power in single hands. The power may be used for evil, as well as for good. The concentration under single control of these large aggregations of capital is therefore a circumstance full of peril.

What is there in this position?

No doubt, the greater the power, the more serious may be the consequences of its abuse.

But what are the real disadvantages, and the real dangers? Have we here anything really new, or any really serious danger?

In considering this point, men generally lose sight of the fact, that these large combinations of capital exist in many different departments; that the increase in the amounts of capital has taken place in enterprises of all kinds; that all these different combinations of capital have a diversity of interest; and that the amounts of capital in different directions, and in different industries, have increased in the same proportion. No doubt, if all the capital in the world, or in a single country, were under a separate single control, or if all the different combinations of capital had a unity of interest, then the situation would be different, and would be one which might reasonably excite apprehension. But these different combinations of capital are not under single control. They have a complete diversity of interest; and are continually in a position of antagonism.

In short, there is no essential change in the industrial or legal situation, resulting from these large masses of capital, except one which goes through all industrial and financial interests alike. Modern civilization, and modern industries, throughout, are on a larger scale. The increase in masses of capital has been universal. One industry has grown as much as others; and the diversity of interests remains as it Combinations of capital have grown in all directions. But so, too, have combinations of labor. The increase of power has been the same everywhere. There has been nothing but a universal increase in volume, in every department of human industry.

was.

To take the situation from a slightly different standpoint:

The dangers from these large combinations of capital look in two directions; if they threaten any one, they threaten two classes of persons, purchasers, and employees.

Now it is a singular fact, that the history of the modern industrial and financial world shows, on the one hand, that there has been a steady decrease in the profits of capital, accompanied by a steady decrease in the prices of manufactured products; while on the other hand, we find a steady increase in the wages of labor. And then, to sup. plement these facts, we have the other one, already mentioned, of the absence of a single instance where either capitalists or speculators have ever been able to make any considerable advance in prices, for any considerable time.

Really, when we consider the fact that men in the English world, according to the record, have been dreading this rise in prices, and the evil results to purchasers and employees, now for upwards of six centuries, ought not the dire spectre to have materialized by this time, if it is ever to do so?

The spectre never will materialize. The danger is not a serious danger. No doubt, there will be many individual instances, where a reduction of wages by employers, or a temporary advance in price, by a producer or a speculator, may cause temporary inconvenience to a small number of individuals. But such temporary inconveniences are not to be considered by the economist, or the jurist. The employee has his protection in his right to seek other employment. The purchaser has his protection in his right to refuse to purchase, unless at a price which commands his assent. Any such temporary inconveniences to either employees or purchasers, which are caused by the employers or producers, are not considerations which give the right to the legislator, or the judge, to interfere with the complete freedom of contract allowed by law-provided the capitalist refrains from unlawful interference with freedom. of contract and freedom of action on the part of others.

That brings us to the real point of this whole discussion. What is unlawful interference with the rights of others? Every business man, every business corporation, transacts business with the purpose, with the lawful purpose, of competing with his rivals, of cutting down his own prices, and

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