742 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



contracts. It was as full a control of an industry as could be 

 had. Of course, large profits were possible; but capital was 

 attracted to the field. As a result, new plants were started until 

 there are at the present time works enough outside the trust to 

 equal its output. But there is this striking difference between 

 the trust and the independent manufacturers : the plants of the 

 trust are capitalized for thirty million dollars ; the independent 

 plants, equal in capacity, represent an investment of only two 

 million dollars. 



The course of the linseed-oil trust has been analogous. In 

 1887, when the trust was started, it controlled between sixty and 

 seventy per cent of the output of that product. As such it had 

 the manipulation of the market and realized handsome profits, 

 despite the fact that it had to face the independent crushers and 

 was hampered by watered capital. But, to do it, it raised the 

 price of linseed oil so high that the attention of others was drawn 

 to the industry. The president of the trust in his report for 1891 

 said : " It is not considered by your board of directors advisable 

 to publish a detailed statement of the affairs of the company, for 

 the reason that we find by the experience of the past year that 

 our statements find their way into the public press. If made in 

 detail, information is given to our competitors, to the detriment 

 of this company. There is no doubt whatever that the publicity 

 given to our last annual statement caused the building of new 

 works and consequent increase in competition." These independ- 

 ent crushers, strengthened by the newcomers and unhampered by 

 weak plants, were able to wrest the market from the trust. Some 

 months ago the trust sought a conference with its rivals and an 

 effort was made to come to an understanding. That, however, 

 has proved a failure, and competition ruled in the linseed-oil 

 market. 



Furthermore, it is impossible to get control of any article in 

 general demand. Such an attempt may temporarily succeed, but 

 there are powerful forces which will drag it down sooner or later. 

 As an English writer says : " It is difficult to conceive of any 

 body of capitalists being sufficiently powerful to monopolize an 

 article in general demand and to use their monopoly for any 

 length of time to the serious hurt of the public. Directly prices 

 became prohibitive there would be a formidable movement in the 

 opposite direction and the monopoly would break down." 



The fate of the copper syndicate is a striking proof of this. 

 This scheme consisted in nothing less than forestalling the 

 market of the whole world in copper for the period of three years. 

 This the managers attempted to accomplish, and did accomplish 

 for a time, by buying the output of all the copper mines in the 

 world for that period by agreeing to pay the mine owners thir- 



