No. 4.] TRUSTS AND THE FARMERS. 197 



fectly good in law and equity, but of no avail as yet, because 

 of political reasons. But the end is not yet. If the trust is 

 obstinate, its large profits will inevitably lead to the creation 

 of a rival corporation strong enough to compel it by com- 

 petition to reduce its prices. If it buy up its rival, another 

 and another rival will arise to vex it, until the prices are 

 reduced within such limits as to make it no longer worth the 

 while for capital to compete. Moreover, there is a limit to 

 which the patience of the people can be provoked and public 

 opinion can be ignored. 



4. Fourthly, it will not do to forget that the employees 

 of the trust are parties in interest. Though they receive 

 wages instead of dividends, their hearty co-operation and 

 their efEciency are essential to the success of the corpora- 

 tion. If the best machinery is necessary, the best workman 

 to run the machine is required. If the organization of the 

 various departments of the trust is more complex and deli- 

 cate than the huge engine, the faithful and able manager 

 must be found who can be trusted to do his part. A hungry, 

 sleepy, exhausted motorman wrecks his car,' an overworked 

 locomotive engineer wrecks his train, a neglected captain of 

 a steamship may wreck his vessel. If the trust itself cannot 

 be trusted, it must soon come to pass that its most trusted 

 employees will prove faithless or incompetent. Strikes are 

 detrimental to the corporation, as well as to the working 

 men. One great strike teaches the corporation that pre- 

 vention is cheaper than victories, industrial peace is more 

 profitable than war. 



It is possible for a trust to employ ignorant immigrants in 

 unskilled labor, at starvation wages, and then, when used 

 up, turn them loose as paupers or vagrants upon society, 

 and take on a new gang to repeat the process ; but in the 

 end it has not been found profitable. Such a policy sets 

 social, moral, political and economic forces into action which 

 soon cause the corporation to consider its conduct and reform 

 its action. 



5. Fifthly, the interests of the State, the public, the con- 

 sumers and the laboring; men are one in the matter of demand- 

 ing that the trust shall be wisely administered and properly 

 controlled ; but these parties are many, and it takes time to 



