296 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of that diversification which, is an accepted sign of progress. The 

 trust succeeds the corporation as the corporation succeeds the firm, 

 as the firm succeeds the individual artisan, as the individual arti- 

 san differentiated from the Jack-of-all-trades of the early house- 

 hold. 



A trust may be a combination of plants and operations thereto- 

 fore separately conducted by corporations, corporations and firms, 

 or by corporations, firms, and individuals. Its essential character- 

 istic is the solidification of formerly diverse and opposing interests. 

 This may be obtained by a combination under the trust certificate 

 plan, or by the complete absorption of the ownership of the com- 

 bining elements. Thus a corporation may be absorbed in a trust 

 which may be transformed into a corporation, which in time may 

 form a constituent element of a greater trust. Under each com- 

 bination there is increased centralization of control and the exten- 

 sion of the operations in a widening field. And it sometimes 

 happens that one man, or a few men closely associated, hold a 

 controlling interest in, or predominate in the direction of, several 

 organizations. There are two or three firms in New York, for 

 example, any one of which regulates the management of two or 

 more railroad or other corporations. 



In each sphere of development, from the growth of the plan- 

 etary systems out of the nebulous mass to the ascent of the living 

 organisms of highest endowment from the protoplasmic mass of 

 dull and homogeneous sensation, all progress has been along the 

 lines of differentiation of function and structure and co-ordina- 

 tion of like functions in a decreasing number of structures or 

 organizations, each characterized by an increasing centralization 

 of control of a broadening field. If the working of the industrial 

 forces that has led to the formation of corporations and trusts is 

 directly analogous to the working of forces that along other lines 

 has led to analogous effects, this industrial aggregation is a nat- 

 ural and inevitable step of industrial evolution that therefore can 

 not but be beneficent in its final results. 



As evolution along any line is most direct when its forces are 

 least impeded, the industrial development of the United States 

 should have been most rapid, for here conditions have been more 

 favorable to industrial activity than among any other people at 

 any time in history. The American settlers were of vigorous 

 ancestry ; natural wealth abounds ; the climate is temperate ; and 

 there has been the least retardation from the evils of government, 

 the evils of war, and religious intolerance. From this is another 

 proof that the formation of trusts is a natural step of industrial 

 evolution, for it is in the United States that they have been of 

 most direct growth and have attained their greatest dimensions 

 and their greatest strength. 



