CORRESP ONDENCE. 



699 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



ARTIFICIAL STIMULATION OF TRUSTS. 



Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



SIR : On reading Mr. McPherson's paper 

 in your July number, and in view of the 

 present strike, I am more than ever impressed 

 with the social importance of the central 

 idea which I endeavored to set forth in a 

 paper, Corporations and Trusts, sent for 

 your consideration last winter. At this time 

 I desire to call your attention to what seems 

 to me to be an entirely unwarrantable posi- 

 tion assumed by Mr. McPherson. 



After showing that there is a general 

 tendency toward specialization by the evo- 

 lutionary working of natural laws, he assumes 

 that it has been and is wise to still further 

 specialize by formation of corporations and 

 trusts that is, by artificial means. On page 

 296 he says, " This industrial aggregation is 

 a natural and inevitable step of industrial 

 evolution that therefore can not be but bene- 

 ficial in its final results." So far as the ag- 

 gregation is the result of natural laws, not 

 statutory laws, this may be so ; but to the 

 natural aggregation, with the hardships and 

 advantages incident thereto, there has all 

 along been an unnatural aggregating power 

 at work. I refer to the laws permitting the 

 formation of corporations for business pur- 

 poses. I hold that natural processes weed 

 out the weak and unfitted fast enough and 

 with sufficient attendant pain and contention. 

 Natural aggregation and natural competition 

 may be well, and their results on the whole 

 are probably beneficial ; but citing facts in 

 proof of these things, or calling our attention 

 to evolutionary doctrines of what natural 

 laws have accomplished, does not even tend 

 to prove that legislative enactments help to 

 produce a beneficial aggregation or speciali- 

 zation. The sociological part of evolution 

 comes pretty near establishing that all such 

 enactments are of very doubtful propriety. 

 That the law permitting the formation of 

 corporations for business purposes has been 

 more productive of bad than good results 

 seems to me very probable, and that there- 

 fore it is relatively wrong, and never intend- 

 ed, on the whole, to produce " beneficial re- 

 sults," or "aggregations" that were bene- 

 ficial. 



Mr. McPherson certainly fails to show 

 any such beneficial results and proofs there- 

 of. The fact is that natural laws are exact, 

 and the pain and pleasure or both are com- 

 mensurate, exact, and just, and tend to work 

 beneficially on the whole ; whereas any and 

 all legal enactments are more or less inexact, 

 and no such perfect degree of justice, pain, and 

 pleasure follows ; frequently what follows is 

 almost wholly injustice. 



For the great mass of people to accommo- 

 date themselves to this " aggregation " as 

 fast as natural laws would force it is to tax 

 them to their utmost limit of endurance ; 

 but when we artificially stimulate this " ag- 

 gregation" we have passed beyond their 

 power or ability to maintain their peace, and 

 strikes, bloodshed, and untold misery are 

 among the results. Much, if not all, of this 

 open contention and misery would be avoid- 

 ed if only the natural aggregating causes 

 produced effects. It is the artificial "ag- 

 gregating" force of corporations that has 

 so overloaded the national stomach with its 

 " aggregations," combines, and trusts ; and 

 now that stomach is in violent upheaval, 

 trying to free itself. 



Free competition is well, and so are laws 

 preserving it in peace ; but laws which as- 

 sume to be able to help natural processes are 

 and always have been relatively bad, and in 

 some instances very bad. 



If legislation permitting the formation 

 of private or business corporations has in- 

 creased the aggregating process and contrib- 

 uted to (or produced) the cause of trusts and 

 strikes and Mr. McPherson seems to grant 

 that it has, which is just what I attempted 

 to show, among other things, in my paper 

 then such legislation is something the 

 afflicted classes have just cause to com- 

 plain of. 



The great importance of the question, 

 and the suffering and the pending crisis, are 

 my excuses for calling your attention a sec- , 

 ond time to this matter ; and, also, as I be- 

 lieve, when recognized, errors are not allowed 

 to go uncorrected in your monthly. 

 I remain very truly yours, 



CHARLES WHEDON. 

 MEDINA, N. Y., July 10, 1804. 



