How Trusts are Beneficial to the Public . 
129 
rampant competition, the decline of commercial profit, overpro¬ 
duction along certain lines, and the failure of pools, nor to dis¬ 
cuss the benefits that have accrued to society from their forma¬ 
tion, and to show that they contain within them the seeds of 
their own dissolution whenever they violate the conditions upon 
which their existence depends. “ They live and thrive only as 
they serve the public better than their competitors, and in this 
country of abounding resources, limitless capital and endless 
energy, intelligence and enterprise, it is impossible that any 
sort of business can be made unduly profitable, by an increase in 
the selling price of the commodity produced, without provoking 
competition and calling other capital into the same field of enter¬ 
prise. ” 5 They must not only contend with residual competition, 
but avoid provoking potential competition as well. If, there¬ 
fore, prices cannot be unduly raised, and as a matter of fact are 
lowered, how does the trust make a profit? By enlarging the 
margin of profit at the bottom by cheapening production and 
avoiding the wastes due to ruinous competition, also by realiz¬ 
ing the advantages of unity of management. These objects can 
be secured in no other way than by a combination of the corpo¬ 
rations into what is known as a trust; and the same conditions 
that make this course necessary compel the pursuance of a policy 
that is beneficial to the public, although the original motive is 
purely one of self interest. 
It is not denied, however, that the trusts have been guilty 
of many wrong and illegal acts; that their methods are not always 
to be approved; that they have in some instances injured the 
public, and that their power has been exerted in Congress and 
the State legislatures. But it may be asked whether these evils 
are not largely the result of the absence of regulative legislation 
on the one hand and of repressive legislation on the other? The 
trust has been condemned because of certain wrong-doings, 
whether real or imagined, and because the impression is abroad 
that the trust is in some way or another doing a public mis¬ 
chief. It is not understood that the trust is but another stage 
in industrial development; that it is here to stay, in spite of 
5 Ibid. 
9 
