196 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



sumers of the product, or for the service of those whose 

 money supports the corporation. A raih'oad exists not for 

 the benefit of its stockholders and managers, but for the 

 service of the persons vrho ride upon it and who ship their 

 freight over it ; the stockholders and managers are paid for 

 serving the patrons of the road. The sugar trust does not 

 exist for the sole benefit of its president and directors and 

 stockholders, but for the benefit especially of the consumers 

 of the product. A bank does not receive its charter that its 

 officers and stockholders may grow rich, but that the deposi- 

 tors and business men who borrow of it and lend to it may 

 be faithfully served. The corporation that serves its cus- 

 tomers, patrons, consumers of the product, promoting their 

 best interest, thrives ; the corporation that advances its own 

 selfish interests, at the expense of the consumer, is digging 

 a pitfall for its own destruction. 



At what price must a monopoly sell its commodity, — 

 what shall it charo^e for its service? Concerning those trusts 

 whose product is such that the demand falls off rapidly as 

 the price is increased, the answer is plain. The trust can 

 fix what price it will. If the price is too low, it loses money. 

 If the price is too high, it will lose more than it can gain. 

 Experience shows that immense sales at a small profit on 

 each article are vastly more profitable than a large profit on 

 each commodity but with small sales. By a great economic 

 law in such cases the interests of the trust and of the con- 

 sumer are identical. Hence the prices of oil and sugar and 

 such commodities have been greatly reduced. 



But there are other commodities and services of such a 

 nature that the demand does not change greatly when prices 

 are decreased or increased. Sugar is something everybody 

 wants, but a telephone is wanted only by comparatively a 

 few. Hence the telephone company in New York City finds 

 it more profitable for the time being to charge the few who 

 must have a telephone 1 240 a year, than to charge a greater 

 number $100 a year. In this instance the Board of Trade 

 appealed to the Legislature for relief, on the ground that the 

 company had received its patents and right of eminent 

 domain and charter from the State, not for the purpose of 

 extortion, but to promote the public good, — a ground per- 



