INVESTIGATING THE TRUST PROBLEM 107 



The table of consolidations which appears in the appendix of 

 the official report is contributed by the census, not by the 

 commission. In the final report, Professor Jenks dismisses the 

 subject with two pages and concludes that the figures "give 

 no clue as to the extent to which such combinations are able 

 to monopolize any industry." The subject is one of great 

 difficulty; no individual is able to solve it unaided. The 

 government alone can furnish sufficient facts upon which any 

 adequate judgment might be based. The census of 1900 gives 

 a large amount of such data and draws certain conclusions 

 which are of value. A study of the census data would enable 

 one to show the extent to which corporations are superseding 

 partnerships and individuals in the management of business, 

 and to what extent they have, up to the present time, suc- 

 ceeded in organizing the various great industries under a con- 

 centrated management. This question is yet unsolved, not- 

 withstanding that it is the center of the trust question. If 

 large combinations are growing no faster than the industries 

 in which they exist, if individual enterprises keep pace with 

 the large corporation, the consolidations will not be able to 

 attain a monopolistic position. Legislation ought to be very 

 different when large corporations are working side by side 

 and merely keeping pace with individual enterprises, from 

 that which might be required under a regime in which all 

 industries are becoming fast consolidated into capitalistic 

 monopolies 



II. The Causes of Consolidation. Assuming that it is 

 proven that there are large consolidations growing up in many 

 branches of industry; that, temporarily at least, the great 

 consolidations possess powers different from those possessed 

 by corporations twenty five j^ears ago; they are able to dis- 

 regard to a certain extent the laws of competition, — the in- 

 quiry naturally arises as to the causes at work, or the under- 

 lying industrial conditions which are producing them. Upon 

 this point the report of the commission gives considerable 

 testimony of value. The men who are inside the trusts, who 

 were with independent companies before consolidation, who 

 have been instrumental in bringing independent companies 

 under the consolidation form, understand from experience 



