THE CONSOLIDATIONS CALLED "TRUSTS' 79 



ence of individual ownership; the fulfilment of an instinct, 

 born with the beginnings of property itself, and without which 

 property would not have been. This instinct it is that has 

 kindled, at all times, the genius of the inventor; that makes 

 strong the arm of the laborer ; that brings companionship into 

 the field with the farmer; that sets before us a prize, nerving 

 our resolution to its attainment; and that, turning us aside 

 from frivolous lives, makes us useful helpers in the progress 

 of mankind. Along with love of liberty, and reverence for 

 the rights of man, this innate desire to acquire and possess 

 constitutes a cornerstone in the fabric of our civil government 

 — is, indeed, the spirit and soul of our civil institutions. And 

 what shall it profit our country if it gain the whole world and 

 lose its soul? 



I do not expect the soul to be lost; I do not expect the 

 tendency toward consolidation — a natural economic law — to 

 cease; but I do expect that the present consolidations, and 

 those that come after them, will either cease to exist or will 

 be put on such firm ground, in matters of obedience to law, 

 fairness in organization, honesty of management and per- 

 manence of reasonable success, that the average man and 

 woman, who by birth or inclination seeks a place in industrial 

 life, may safely become part owners in their securities, and 

 in that way co-sharers in the advancing prosperity of the land. 

 This, in my judgment, states the core of this whole vexed 

 subject of the so-called industrial trusts. 



But before proceeding to state the salient facts and 

 reasons upon which my judgment is based, I wish, if possible, 

 to arrive at a common understanding of what we mean by the 

 word " trusts" and what are more or less fanciful objections 

 to their existence. I exclude from the purpose of this discus- 

 sion the railroads of the country. They may or may not be 

 trusts ; it is enough that they are commonly in mind when we 

 think of the so-called industrial trust. Besides, the considera- 

 tions that should control our judgment in their case are so 

 different, in many respects, from those relating to the -indus- 

 trial trusts, that an attempt to discuss both, indiscriminately, 

 would bring confusion. I exclude also the large private enter- 

 prises such as department stores. The attitude of the general 



