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' A GREAT PROBLEM.
MOST STUPENDOUS REVOLUTION IN
INDUSTRIAL GROWTH.
A Culm View of tlio Trout—Prlnelplea
ami Moral* Ignored Soring* tlic
People lo Not Cet—Thliin* to He
Determined.
The following dispassionate yet force
fa! treatment of the subject of trusts
appeared as the leading editorial in a
recent issue of the New York Journal
of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin,
the oldest journal of its class in the
country and the recognized organ of the
business interests, particularly whole
sale and jobbing, of New York
From advance sheets of The Com
mercial Year Book, shortly to be issued
from this oiiice. we are able to present
a summary of approximately complete
statistics of the trust organizations in
the United States. We here use the
term “trust” in its broadest popular
sense, as covering not only consolidated
corporations, framed for directly mo
nopolistic purposes, but also alliances of
independent organizations acting under
a common understanding for the pur
pose of less directly regulating or de
feating natural competition, the latter
being but a small proportion of the
v/hole At the end of last month these
combinations numbered Br>3, with the
following aggregations of capital stock
and bonded debt, compared with a year
previous
1899 1898 !
■Number of organiza
lions 853 an
Common stock $4,247,918,981 $2,889,757,119
Preferred 5t0ck....... 870,575,200 303,704,053
Total stock $5,118,494,181 $3,283,521,452
Pointed debt 714,388,001 378,750,091
Stock and bonds. $5,832,882,842 $3,002,241,548
The details included in these totals
have in some cases been difficult of
procurement, and in some instances es
timates have had to be adopted We
therefore cannot in aH cases claim pre
cise accuracy, but from the care that
has been exercised in the compilation
we feel justified in claiming a close ap
proximation to exactness in the totals
above set forth
It will bo seen that at the end of
February these 853 combinations had
issued a total of $5,118,500,000 of cap
ital stock and $714,389,000 of bond ob
ligations These figures show an in
crease over those we published a year
ago of 76 per cent in the number of
institutions and CO per cent in the com
bined stock and bonded debt, which in
dicates the extraordinary rapidity with
which the movement has spread within
the last 12 months. What proportion of
the entire manufactures of the United
States has passed under this new form
of organization may be inferred from
the fact that the census of 1890 values
the entire capital then employed in the
manufacturing and mechanical indus
tries at $6,525,000,000. which includes
all the minor or retail work done by
small, individual proprietors. This
means that tlio total capitalization of
these combinations is equal to about 90
per cent of the entire manufacturing
investments of 1890 About the only
important branch of industry that has
escaped the trust invasion is that of
textiles, and if wo eliminate that de
partment from the total for 1890 the
present capitalization of the monopo
listic industries will bo found to about
equal the valuation of the last census.
Tbeso facts will indicate with approxi
mate clearness how closely our indus
trial system has approached to complete
absorption under monopolist control.
The process of transition has passed far
beyond the stage of possible arrest; it is
virtually a completed accomplishment,
except in a few industries which have
hitherto seemed unsusceptible of con
solidated management, but which may
be drawn later into the maelstrom
The change is the most stupendous
revolution ever accomplished in the
history of the world’s industrial growth,
its suddenness is as remarkable as its
magnitude It has come with none of
the careful deliberation that usually at
tends the investment of great aggrega
tions of capital. It has been guided by
no precedent experience It is no grad
ual resnlt of a natural evolution It is
an abrupt outburst of resistance to an
unusually severe pressure of the natural
regulatory force of competition It is a
reversal of all that economists have ac
cepted as fundamental axioms of trade,
it is an uudeliberated revolt against
the most essential force in the regula
tion of production, distribution and
values, the natnial law of competition.
It amounts to a complete disruption of
the relations between the industrial
forces and classes of society It is an
extinguishment of the voluntary ex
changes between the producing and
inert banting interests, and the creation
of one exclusive producing organization
for each industry, to which all other
material interests must yield subjection,
industry at large is organized into a
system of feudalized corporations, each
one of which enjoys absolute power
within its special branch of production,
while, taken in the mass, the system
constitutes itself tho supremest trade
power in the nation These innovations
upon the fixed methods of industry,
though fundamentally affecting the
citizen's free access to the opportunities
of industrialism, take little account of
legalities, equally ignoring the law as
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FRIGE, U’B CEfiTS.
it stand and as it may possibly be
changed to meet the case This head
long precipitancy has pursued its pur
pose almost without forethought; cer
tainly with slight consideration for
trade moralities or fur the weightiest
of human liberties and with little re
gard fur the perils to public order which
the outworkings of the system are too
liable to evoke.
In advance of the event it would not
have been deemed possible that the
most important class among our trained
and responsible capitalists could at one
bound take such a daring leap into the
dark The change is at best a stupen
dous experiment The pressure of ex
cessive competition which has made our
industrialists willing to embark on this
venture was undoubtedly trying and
threatening, so much so that it need
uot be considered surprising if those
who were suffering most should be
found willing to risk the alternative of
an unpromising venture, and still more
an experiment that presented at first
sight some alluring attractions. But
that the whole body of industrialists
should simultanously forsake known
and well proved methods for a revolu
tionizing reconstruction can only be re
garded as an unparalleled craze of ven
ture among men who have always
proved signally sane.
Tho change, however, is now a fixed
fact It places nearly our entire indus
tiial system upon the monopolistic basis.
That is a venture unparalleled in the
history of material civilization, and not
merely the manufacturing interest, but
the still vaster interests thereon de
pendent, can but await the outcome
with an expectancy that must grow
more intense as the trial progresses.
Some things are claimed for the new
conditions which many are disposed to
concede Undoubtedly the great expan
sion of machine production, for in
stance, calls for the employment of
much enlarged capitals. Bat it surely
does uot follow that this principle may
be logically or safely carried to the
length of giving to each industry one
sole organization ansl a single mam
moth capital in preference to having
several large competing capitals Equal
ly it must he granted that the consoli
dation of a number of competing capi
tals into one concern should be attended
with important economies in manage
ment But it is not to be denied that
such concentrations of management
will be subject to countervailing offsets
from the absence of the stimulus of
competition; from the uncertainty
about tho management falling iuto the
best possible hands: from the discour
agement to invention which always at
tends monopoly, and from the possibil
ity that the administration may be in
timated to “friends” rather than ex
perts And, above all, it cannot be as
sumed that any savings from these
economies will go to consumers rather
than proprietors, when a very large
proportion of the common stock repre
sents not actual capital invested, but
assumed earnings which will, naturally
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be demanded by the stockholders.
Among the things to be determined
by this experiment are the following:
First. —Whether, with the vast con
stant increase in the national capital,
it will be found possible for the monop
olies to long protect themselves against
outside competition.
Second.—What will be the recourse
sought by the great and wealthy dis
tributing class who will find themselves
at the mercy of the trusts and whose
services the latter will probably ulti
mately seek to dispense with?
Third.—Will this superseded class of
middlemen employ their large means
in resort to manufacturing in competi
tion with the trusts?
Fourth. —So with the producers of raw
materials, who, so far as respects the
home market, will have but one custom
er, for whose single wants they will all
be competitors, will they be disposed
to join cause with the displaced oi
dominated distributors in establishing
competition against the monopolies?
Fifth. —Can the trusts fulfill their
promises of cheapness to consumers ana
yet earn dividends upon their inflated
stock issues? And, if not, what will be
come of those promises?
Sixth. —If the liberal working cap
itals with which the trusts are now
i prudently protecting themselves should
| disappear in catering to speculative
operations in their stocks and in satia
! tying the clamor of stockholders, what
would he the disposition of the banks
to extend loans to institutions consti
tuted and exposed to new dangers as
these are? Would the banks, in such
case, become the backers of monopolies ?
Seventh.—With the trusts pledged to
low prices on the one hand and to divi
dends ou watered stock on the other,
what will be the position of labor under
the new system ? If the trusts’ restraints
upon production create a redundancy
of labor, what will be the effect upon
wages? Will the onus of monopoly in
the long run fall upon the back of the
workingman ?
Eighth.—How will the monopolies
protect themselves against competition
from foreign factories where prices are
not artificially regulated ? Do they ex
pect to have the tariff raised to suit
their convenience? If not, how can
they escape the effects of external com
I petition? Moreover, if a resentment in
| public opinion should so shape politics
as to bring about a reduction in the
tariff, would not purpose of the
monopolies be neutralized and their
* imagined advantages be dissipated?
Isiuth. —ls there any protabilitv that
ultimate resentments among the dis
tributing and raw material producing
classes may induce them to encourage
such a change in our tariff policy?
Tenth. —As it is the professed pur
pose of the monopolies to maintain
prices on a full profit paying basis,
what will become of the large increase
in our export of manufactures which
has arisen during recent years from
selling our ever growing surplus to for
eigners at the lowest possible prices?
Eleventh. —Is a hard and fast combi
nation to protect prices compatible
with securing an expansion of our for
eign markets commensurate with our
capacity for production, with the in
crease in our supply of labor and with
the unprecedented gain iu the amount
of capital seeking employment?
Twelfth. —Are the American forces
of capital and labor capable of being
held in restraint for the convenience of
these combinations?
These are problems which the new
system of industrialism has courageous
ly propounded, and for a considerable
period they must occupy the anxious
att*ntion of the American people. We
can only hope the popular temper will
maiutain its equanimity through this
prospective trying ordeal
Do Yon Like Itf
If you send a package by express to a
friend, you pay 1 cent over and above
the company’s charge for the war stamp
—that is, the corporation acts as col
lector of the war tax for the govern
ment and the government furnishes
the stamps and the corporation gets
credit for paying the tax, and the pros
pect is that with a deficit of $2(f0,000,-
000 a year you will continue paying the
tax while the capitalists scramble for
franchises and the government at
Washington is debauched and forced to
create a great army to put you down if
you whimper. And that’s the kind of
government some of you like. So does
every enemy of the best interests of hu
manity.—Social Democratic Herald.
The Game Ir. the South.
A big game is being played in the
south. The cotton trust is gaining con
trol of the ginning business by intro
ducing the round bale system. The
trust owns the patents, and when the
square bale system is abolished it will
have the planter by the throat as effec
tually as northern and western farmers
are being held up by the farmers’ im
plement trust The round ginning ma
chinery is in every way superior to the
old square ginners and is not sold but
leased bv the trust.—Cleveland Citizen
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