COMPETITION AND THE TRUSTS, 627 



ness to criticism and sense of public responsibility wbich. have 

 marked tbe Standard's later history. These " trusts " fall in the 

 main into four classes — those which, like the iron and steel trust, 

 are fostered by a tariff which excludes foreign competition ; those 

 like the envelope trust, which derive an additional element of mo- 

 nopoly from patented machinery and processes ; those like the 

 gas trusts, which are of quasi-^Vi\>\\c character, and operate under 

 municipal franchise ; and lastly, those which, like the Standard 

 Oil and Cotton-seed Oil Trusts, depend solely upon aggregated 

 capital and unified organization for their supremacy. That low- 

 ering the tariff would abate the excessive gains of " trusts " of the 

 first-mentioned kind is proved by the sudden rise in the value of 

 their certificates on the defeat of a national Administration 

 pledged to tariff reform. In so far as abuse of patent-rights is 

 made auxiliary to "trust" extortion, the curtailment or forfeiture 

 of such rights, when so abused, becomes a subject demanding 

 legal redress. With respect to " trusts " exercising gi/asi-public 

 privileges, such as those of gas-supply, the remedy consists in 

 municipal control, as convincingly maintained by Prof. E. J. 

 James, of Philadeljihia, in his treatise on the subject. 



In considering the difficult questions which the advent of 

 the " trusts " has created, it is necessary to discriminate between 

 those which treat the public fairly and those which exact the 

 utmost the public can be made to pay. If the Standard Oil Trust, 

 disgraceful though its history may be, can prove that it gathers, 

 transports, refines and sells petroleum cheaper than could the 

 competitors whose place it has taken, what can be said against it ? 

 Its managers have built up a Union-comprehending organization, 

 and are entitled to share in the results which flow from the econ- 

 omies they have perfected. Fairly managed, a trust is the last 

 term in a process which began when a machine dispossessed hand- 

 labor ; which advanced when steam was applied to the machine ; 

 which took another step when steam-machinery, operated by 

 massed joint-stock capital, undersold private firms. Industrial 

 progress has steadily marched forward along the lines dictated 

 by the economy of bigness over smallness, of high specialization, 

 of the adjustment of supply to an ascertained demand, the con- 

 stant substitution of knowledge of markets for ignorance regard- 

 ing them, the unremitting elimination of chance. To many 

 thousands of worthy men engaged in the rivalry with new 

 methods they have meant defeat and ruin. This is pathetic but 

 inevitable, for, when once men find out some better or cheaper 

 way of doing a thing, they never go back to some costlier or more 

 troublesome plan, no matter who suffers. Excluding then from 

 all combinations to be pursued and condemned those which are 

 controlled with fairness, we have to consider the best course to 



