MONOPOLY OF TRADE TRUSTS. 635 



between coal barons, coal and lard oil refiners, brewers, 

 sugar-makers, rubber manufacturers, gas companies and 

 other trades. Formerly the theory of commerce was 

 founded upon competition, and it was supposed that com- 

 petition secured all the advantages of enterprise and 

 ability, and promoted the public weal, while keeping trade 

 sound and wholesome, just as the flow of running water 

 maintained its purity. It used to be thought that 

 combinations against the consumer or to enhance prices 

 were not only reprehensible but illegal. Our capitalists 

 have got beyond that idea. ' ' 



A " Trust" is a combination of manufacturers or firms 

 organized for the purpose of enhancing the price of their 

 products, either by agreeing to arbitrarily raise it, or by 

 the more usual method of limiting the production. 



The plan of operation is to secure the co-operation of 

 all who are engaged in the production of a like article, and 

 issue stock in proportion to the value of each concern, with 

 a view of distributing the stock pro rata. A half dozen 

 or a dozen of these factories may be ordered to shut down 

 by the board of trustees in order to limit the supply, and 

 consequently enhance the price, but the proprietors and 

 stockholders of the closed factories are entitled to their 

 share of the mutual profits of the u pool " the same as if 

 they were running. The hands are thus abruptly thrown 

 out of employment and receive no remuneration while idle. 



The most prominent among these enormous giants of 

 monopoly is the Standard Oil Company, with a capital of 

 $ 1 44, ooo, ooo. The extent of this organization, and the 

 audacity with which it levies contributions on trade, can 

 hardly be conceived. A correspondent of the New York 

 World, who recently visited the oil fields of Pennsylvania, 

 thus graphically describes it: 



"There is no spot in the oil regions, however remote, 

 however high in the mountains or hard of access, that the 



