THE FARMER xVND THE TRUSTS. 397 



the changing of the temporary combinations, expiring by 

 limitation, to those which were permanent. If it was desired 

 to consolidate a number of concerns it was only necessary to 

 form a new company which should actually own the property 

 of the concerns to be consolidated. This was easily effected 

 bv giving the stock of the new company in exchange for the 

 property of the old companies, and retiring their stock. It is 

 not possible to prevent this by any means short of the aboli- 

 tion of industrial corporations, and this, in any modern civ- 

 ilized nation, can not for a moment be thought of. The term 

 "Trust" adheres to these consolidated companies, although as 

 a matter of fact there may not be a real industrial Trust in 

 existence in America. 



In regard to these Trusts the first thing for the farmer to 

 do is to accept them as a fact. They have come to stay, and 

 will increase in number and importance with the growth of 

 our civilization, with which they are exactly in line. The fact 

 that they are thus natural outgrowths of the progress of society 

 should also convince us that they are in the line of real prog- 

 ress. .There is no question of their value to society in making 

 possible more economical methods of production and distribu- 

 tion, of which the public should reap the advantage. The 

 public, however, does not always reap this advantage. It 

 never does if those concerned in the Trusts can help it. So 

 far as they can do so, while the Trusts earnestly seek to reduce 

 costs, they endeavor with equal earnestness to sell their prod- 

 ucts as high as before or higher. As the Trusts can exist only 

 by virtue of the power of law, we have the anomaly of the 

 power of society being used to oppress society, while the 

 oppressors are protected by the fact that society can not use 

 its power to abolish them without at the same time abolishing 

 what is essential to the transaction of its business. 



The problem for the farmer in this connection is therefore 

 how to retain the advantages which the Trusts confer u{)on 

 society without enduring the ills which they will inflict if 

 they can. The principal, if not the only method hitherto 

 em[)loyed by farmers is the passage of denunciatory resolutions, 

 sometimes of a very lurid nature. The trouble with this 



