No. 4.] TRUSTS AND THE FARMERS. 191 



advantage. It enables the company to prevent the price 

 from falling so low as to bankrupt the producer, and from 

 rising so high as to check the demand by impoverishing the 

 buyers. 



We must conclude, then, that the trust is master of the 

 situation, and is therefore able to produce its commodity 

 under the most favorable circumstances, as cheaply as it can 

 possibly be made and yet of the very best quality ; and thus 

 to sell it at the least expense for the highest price that the 

 demand will justify. As against the individual, or the part- 

 nership, or the small corporation, the trust has the greatest 

 advantage. In its line it is autocratic. Left to itself, it 

 eliminates competition and enjoys a monopoly. In its par- 

 ticular line of business the trust is the perfection of the com- 

 bination of capital and of the organization of industry. It is 

 the most complete instrument for the production of wealth 

 the world has yet discovered. 



Properly administered and justly conducted, as it might 

 be, the trust is a great boon to humanity. The Standard Oil 

 Company, jprojDerly administered and justlj conducted, must 

 produce the greatest possible amount of illuminating and 

 lubricating oil, of the best quality, at the least cost of money, 

 time and effort, and sell it to the greatest possible number 

 of consumers at the lowest possible price. But what is this? 

 Is it not to turn darkness into light, coldness to warmth, death 

 to life, and to make friction less in all the turning points of 

 progress? The sugar trust, j;rq/;e>"?_y administered and justlt/ 

 conducted, must produce the greatest possible amount of 

 sugar of the best quality, at the least cost of labor, time and 

 money, and sell it to the largest number of consumers at the 

 lowest possible price. But what is this? Is it not to 

 sweeten and warm humanity ? Sugar, you know, is mostly 

 carbon, and that warms the human heart and sweetens life. 

 Suppose the salt trust, the steel trust, the coal combination 

 and all of the other monopolistic corporations, properly ad- 

 ministered and justly conducted, should do their best, — 

 what must follow ? Then should we have an abundance of 

 all the best commodities, necessaries, comforts and luxuries 

 of life, produced at the least cost of time, labor and money, 

 distributed to the masses of the people for the least price. 



