648 APPENDIX. 



II. AMERICAN TRUSTS. 



It is said that one day when the Emperor Nero was out of sorts, he expressed 

 the wish that all the Roman people had but one neck, so that he could the more 

 easily cut it off. Capital seems to be trying to put itself in a position where it 

 can be similarly dealt with. When one army is greatly inferior to another, its 

 best course is ordinarily to take to the bush and carry on a guerrilla warfare. 

 The power of capital is vastly inferior to that of the people, and if it deliber- 

 ately proposed to make war upon the public, its most prudent course would be 

 to conceal itself, and fight under cover. There is no such intention. Capital is 

 not organized as a whole, and competes with itself as vigorously as farmers or 

 commission merchants compete with each other. Each capitalist, however, is 

 striving to make the most possible for himself, and at the present time there 

 appears to be a craze among owners of industrial plants to unload their posses- 

 sions, at high prices, upon the investing public. They are, therefore, rapidly 

 organizing Trusts by the methods described on page 411, and endeavoring to 

 sell out. Investors are allured by the promise that as the result of the consoli- 

 dations for which they are asked to supply the capital, prices can be raised to a 

 point which will enable the concerns to pay dividends upon the enormously 

 inflated stock. In this they will usually fail, and the investors will lose their 

 money. In its present shape, therefore, the campaign for the formation of 

 Trusts is a campaign against investors. The people can rest perfectly easy. No 

 harm can come to them, for the consolidation of interests will render them 

 vastly easier to deal with. The logical outcome of a Trust formed in the normal 

 manner, as the result of unbearable competition, and with plants put in at bed- 

 rock prices, and in the absence of excitement, is profit to those concerned in it, 

 and a raise in prices to just below the point at which new competition will be 

 invited. This will do no harm. It is desirable that all business be done at a 

 reasonable profit. On the contrary, it may do good, as tending to counter 

 organization among farmers, working men, and other classes. The logical 

 result of such a campaign as is now going on is a financial panic when investoi-s 

 shall have discovered the true value of the properties which they have 

 purchased. It is to be hoped that it will not advance to that point. The most 

 of the Trusts now forming will probably not succeed. They are competing 

 with each other for the money of investors, and the crop of fools, although 

 large, is after all, limited. Some of the proposed combinations appear to be 

 really consolidations of enormous capital, with the intent, and possibly, for the 

 present, the power to oppress. These may have to be dealt with, possibly by 

 constitutional amendment. It is easy enough to tax out of existence combina- 

 tions of capital which are dangerous to society. The wild laws which some 

 legislatures are now passing can do no good, and are most of them not only 

 unconstitutional, but more injurious to business than the evils at which they 

 are aimed. "What the public, and especially the farmers, most need, in order to 

 deal successfully with combinations of capital, is perfectly clear minds and 

 perfectly cool heads. 



The following list of Trusts is compiled from the San Francisco Chronicle 

 Almanac for 1899, and a late number of the San Francisco Argonaut. It 



