780 Gubernatorial Messages 



put upon the statute books have been put there by 

 zealous reformers with excellent intentions. 



This problem has a hundred phases. The rela- 

 tion of the capitalist and the wageworker makes one ; 

 the proper attitude of the State toward extreme pov- 

 erty another ; the proper attitude of the State toward 

 the questions of the ownership and running of so- 

 called "public utilities," a third. But among all 

 these phases, the one which at this time has the 

 greatest prominence is the question of what are com- 

 monly termed "trusts," meaning by the name those 

 vast combinations of capital, usually flourishing by 

 virtue of some monopolistic element, which have 

 become so startlingly common a feature in the in- 

 dustrial revolution which has progressed so rapidly 

 during recent years. 



Every new feature of this industrial revolution 

 produces hardship because in its later stages it has 

 been literally a revolution instead of an evolution. 

 The new inventions and discoveries and the new 

 methods of taking advantage of the business fa- 

 cilities afforded by the extraordinary development 

 of our material civilization have caused the changes 

 to proceed with such marvelous rapidity, that at each 

 stage some body of workers finds itself unable to 

 accommodate itself to the new conditions with suf- 

 ficient speed to escape hardship. In the end the ac- 

 commodation of the class takes place; at times too 

 late for the well-being of many individuals. The 

 change which would be unaccompanied by hardship 

 if it came slowly, may be fraught with severe suffer- 



