The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1889-08-31
Concerning Trusts.

A good deal of loose talk is made by the
newspapers and by political con-
ventions about trusts. Like Home
Rule in Ireland trusts have be-
come one of the stock subjects for conven.
lions to resolve upon. One receives invari-
ably favorable mention which is well
enough, while the other gets very unfavor-
able mention which is well enough too when
the trust deserves it, as some of them I'M
doubtedly do. But when conventions de-
clare, like the Ohio Democratic convention,
that trusts Sin whatever form" are public
enemies and should be abolished by legisla-
tion, they are simply running wild. Mr..
Blaine said Great Britain was plastered all
over with trusts-n0t necessarily called by
that name, but associations with all the
essential characteristics of what are techni-
cally known as trusts. With equal truth he
might have said that the United States is
plastered all over with them too. And he need
not of stopped there either. He could have
truthfully declared that the whole civilized
world was plastered over with them. Let
US enumerate some of these trusts. There is
the labor trust. It's the biggest trust in the
country, yields more political power than
any other. The American Congress
has legislated directly in its be-
half which is the case with no
other trust. tits not called trust Yet
essentially that is what it is. 1t deals in a
commodity called labor, and it seeks to get
control OF all there is and thus cut off COM
petition in order to send up prices. Nobody
objects to it, indeed the tendency of legisla-
ton is to foster rather than otherwise. But
the Ohio Democratic platform declares that
it ought to be abolished
In every community of considerable size
there is what may be called the legal trust
1t isn't called trust, but a bar association.
1t has however the essential characteristics
OF trust, in that it is an organization to
reduce competition and thus keep up prices.
Then there is the doctors trust which seeks
to do for the physicians the same thing the
legal trust does for the lawyers. The Ohio
Democrats are going to abolish them.
Then there are thousands of associations
Of tradesmen scattered over the country to
prevent price cutting, and farmers alliances
for the same purpose. These are all forms
of trusts, and as the Ohio Democrats want
all trusts of whatever form abolished the in
ference is that they propose to make war on
these.
AS, however, war on all these forms of
trusts would make such inroads into the De-
mocracy of Ohio that there wouldn't be a
corporaPs guard of them left, and as the par
ty is presumably not ready to commit suicide
the probability is that they didn't mean what
they said, but pandered over strongly to a
prejudice which exists against certain trusts.
some Of this prejudice is, no doubt, well
founded. When combination of individu,
ais undertake to monopolize the necessaries
OF lie, and take advantage of their monop-
oiy TO compel the consumer to pay more than
a lair price, there is good reason for preju-
oice' whether any Of the so-called trusts
nave done that we do not undertake to say.
Inc public is under the impression that they
have, while the trusts themselves contend
that they have not. The correct answer TO
this question is the true test of the charac-
ter OF any trust. trust per Sc is not inioui-
tous, for If it were then everything with its
essential characteristics, such as the labor
organization and the farmers alliance, would
be ubiquitous. too.