74 WILLIAM FRANKLIN WILLOUGHBY 



close relations with it, it also examines titles, places insurance, 

 and performs other duties of fiduciary or legal character. 



Turning now to a consideration of what will probably be 

 the effects, good and bad, of this movement, we shall have to 

 limit ourselves to a very general examination. The movement 

 is as yet too young to permit of any accurate forecasting of the 

 ultimate results as regards the details of our industrial system. 

 It is scarcely necessary, however, to comment upon its pos- 

 sible overwhelming significance. There are definite limits 

 to the progress of concentration, and these seem to have been 

 reached in a number of cases. There are practically none to 

 that of integration. It has already given us a billion dollar 

 corporation, although its influence as a definite force has only 

 recently begun to be distinctly felt. 



In the future progress of this movement there is one 

 industry in which it would seem that the conditions are pecu- 

 liarly favorable for its operation. This is the great industry 

 of railway transportation. The peculiarity of this industry is 

 that it is at once dependent upon all the other industries for 

 its successful exploitation, and all the other industries are in a 

 like manner dependent upon it. We have given above one or 

 two instances where this interdependence has led to integra- 

 tion. These cases, however, are insignificant in comparison 

 with what might take place. The railroads, to an extent 

 equalled by almost no other undertaking, are enormous pur- 

 chasers of certain articles, such as rails, cars, structural ma- 

 terial, and other supplies. These articles, moreover, are ones 

 for which a steady and certain demand exists year after year. 

 The time may very easily come when the roads will abandon 

 the policy of depending upon outside concerns for the supply 

 of the materials and equipment of which they have need, and 

 undertake, as is now done in isolated cases, their direct manu- 

 facture. With their lines reaching all the mines or other 

 sources of supplies of which they have need, and with the 

 possession of certain markets for what is produced in their 

 own needs or the ability effectually to distribute any surplus, 

 the roads are in a peculiarly favorable situation for the manu- 

 facture of a large number of products. If their charters will 

 not permit this to be done directly, the same result can be 



