THE CONSOLIDATIONS CALLED "TRUSTS" 83 



Have these organizations been extinguished? Has the 

 trust idea abated? Let me answer by calling but a partial 

 roll of those organized since the Sherman law went into effect. 

 There is the American Window Glass company, created in 

 1895, five years after the Sherman act. There, too, is the 

 Continental Tobacco company, 1898 ; the Tin Plate company, 

 1898; the Amalgamated Copper company, 1899; the American 

 Radiator, 1899; the National Salt, 1899; the International 

 Plate Glass, 1900; the International Salt, 1901; the Consoli- 

 dated Tobacco, 1901; the United States Steel, 1901; the Corn 

 Products, 1901, and many others that come readily to mind. 

 An inspection made for me of a list of 112 of the leading so- 

 called trusts in the United States shows that all but thirteen 

 have been created since the passage of the Sherman act. 

 May we not, confronted b} r such a spectacle, pause to inquire 

 if this method of dealing with the so-called trusts — this policy 

 of extermination or nothing — is, after all, on solid ground? 

 Can a development so persistent be entirely unnatural? Can 

 we by law of congress successfully repeal what appears to be 

 a fixed law of industrial economy? Is this instinct of the 

 time, properly safeguarded, really in conflict with the public 

 welfare? 



It is urged sometimes that the consolidation idea, when 

 fully attained, will make harder the conditions of ordinary 

 life. Is that true? If true, the indictment should stand. But 

 I can only judge the future by the past; and, seeking some 

 specific analogy, I know nothing in the past so nearly anal- 

 ogous as the beginnings and growth of the railroad sj^stems of 

 the country. Railroads began as small local enterprises. In 

 the start they were the steam highways between neighboring 

 towns and cities, resembling in that respect the present in- 

 terurban trolley systems. For example, what constitutes 

 now the trunk line of the New York Central, from New York 

 to Buffalo, was, originally, seven or eight independent lines; 

 one between New York and Albany; another from Albany to 

 Schenectady; another from Schenectady to Utica; another 

 from Utica to Syracuse; another from Syracuse to Canan- 

 daigua; another from Canandaigua to Rochester; and still an- 

 other from Rochester to Buffalo. The time was when their 



