I04 MAURICE H. ROBINSON 



industries from the standpoint of business organization. For- 

 merly nearly all manufacturing was done by the individual 

 entrepreneur, later by the partnership, now by the corpora- 

 tion; of the total production in the year 1900, nearly $8,000,- 

 000,000, or almost 60 per cent of the total output, was the 

 work of the corporation. Out of over 500,000 independent 

 establishments in the United States, 40,000 in round numbers 

 were in corporate form. The corporations were 12 per cent 

 in number and produced 59A per cent of the output. The 

 partnerships were 18 T V per cent of the total number of estab- 

 lishments, producing 19 A per cent of the total production. 

 Individuals owned 78A per cent of the number of establish- 

 ments and produced only 20 T V per cent of the total amount of 

 production. In certain lines the progress of the corporation 

 has been particularly rapid, viz., in the manufacture of iron 

 and steel, agricultural implements, coke, gas, electrical appara- 

 tus, manufactured ice, rubber goods, photographic goods, etc., 

 etc. This concentration is accomplished through the cor- 

 poration, and to-day, in a word, the corporation problem has 

 to all intents and purposes superseded the trust problem of 

 the previous decade. 



With this vast increase in the manufacturing industries 

 of the country and the concentration of the management under 

 a comparatively small number of corporations, the public, the 

 investors, the economists and the statesmen have become 

 vitally interested in their management. The public has in 

 the past been startled, statesmen anxious, economists in 

 doubt. Investigations have been pushed by interested stu- 

 dents with vigor and earnestness ; interested parties have been 

 active in the defense of the so-called trusts; information has 

 been meagre and often misleading; legislation has been 

 enacted which is the natural outcome of the uncertainty and 

 ignorance. Even the managers of the corporations them- 

 selves have, in some cases, expressed their own doubts as to 

 the future of the corporations which they have created. 

 Under these circumstances there are certain questions which 

 ought to be answered. These questions are: First, to what 

 extent are the manufacturing interests becoming consolidated 

 in large establishments, usually under the corporate form? 



