THE GOOD AND THE BAD OF TRUSTS. 



BY CHARLES J. BULLOCK, 



[Charles Jesse Bullock, economist; born Boston, May 21, 1869; graduated Boston 

 university, 1889; instructor and later professor in economics in Williams college until 

 1904, when he became a member of the faculty of the department of economics in 

 Harvard. Author of The Finances of the United States, 1775-89; Introduction 

 to the Study of Economics, Essays on Monetary History. Contributor to the 

 Quarterly Journal of Economics in which the following article originally appeared.] 



Since most writers recognize that the recent combina- 

 tions of capital have developed monopolistic tendencies to 

 a considerable extent, the outlook for the future becomes 

 a most interesting and important problem. Under all the 

 circumstances, it is not surprising that recent years have 

 witnessed numerous attempts to bring the control of various 

 industries into the hands of single corporations of colossal 

 magnitude, which possess and exercise the power of monopoly. 

 But the reader of recent trust literature finds that many 

 writers of recognized authority contend that these conditions 

 of centralized control are to be permanent in industries that 

 require heavy investments of capital for their successful 

 prosecution, and that competition is a thing of the past. 



In considering this proposition, careful discrimination is 

 necessary at the very outset. There are three possible condi- 

 tions under which industries may be conducted — production 

 upon a small scale, production upon a large scale, and cen- 

 tralized management by a single company or combination. 

 Every student of economic history knows that production 

 upon a small scale was long ago superseded in most important 

 branches of manufactures by undertakings of a large size. 

 The combinations of recent years have sought to replace these 

 large establishments by single consolidated enterprises; and 

 this is the real meaning of the trust movement and the argu- 

 ments advanced to prove its natural and desirable character. 

 No one wishes to revert to the stage when production was 

 carried on by small establishments. Controversy exists only 



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