New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-02-02


the means it uses is competition-that parties COM
bined TO do lawful business are not unlawfully
combined-that it is perfectly legitimate to COM
bine capital for all purposes of trade for which
capital may, apart from combination, be leglt-
imately used in trade-that the statutes repeating
the many acts relating TO combinations ana To
preyent increase of prices were confession OF
failure in the past and the indication OF new
policy for the future-that the policy oil law as
at present declared by the Legislature is against
all letters on combination and competition I'M
accompanied by violence or fraud, or other IKE
injurious acts-that parties thus comDiheu maS
carry competition TO any lengths that indlVlduaiS
may do-that 10 say that man may trade lreely
but that he is TO stop at any acJ WHICH ID ue-
signed to attract business TO his own shop would
be strange and impossible counsel OF periectioh-
that to limit combinations would In the present
day be impossible, and would only be another
method of attempting TO set boundaries 10 INC
tides
PUBLIC OPINION RAPIDLY TRANSFORMING.
In this country the tide has set in the same
direction. Prior TO the Revolution COMBINATION
in manufactures and trades were rare-industry
was carried on by individuas-large capital hau
not been accumulated in few hands. Do we
our grandmothers with their spinning-wheels were
our principal manufacturers One anxiously de-
sirous of a return to that primitive form of So
ciety can still find it far from the mad'ning
crowd" in the mountains of North Carolina or
Tennessee, or among the Acadians in Louisiana.
Business in this country is now carried on
through combinations, and cannot be carried on
otherwise Slowly but surely the law has recog-
nized their necessity and utility. The Legislatures
have removed restrictions and limitations The
courts have announced that laws preventing free
dom of contract were of doubtful utility-that
announcement should be held out to individuals
TO embark large capital in trade-that man
should be allowed to sell the goodwill of his
business and the fruits Of his industry on the
best terms he obtain-that 1T Is now the genius
and policy of the law, through the instrumentahty
of corporations to promote industry ana thrlft
in different classes of cOmmerce-that corporations
have become among the greatest means of State
and National prosperity-that combination stlm-
ulates TO competition, and enables men TO engage
in industry too weghty for one individual-that
there is scarcely branch of trade. from the very
largest to the smallest, that does not feel the
exciting and invigorating influence of the Won
derful fundamentally of cOrpOratiOns-they en-
gage in commerce; they build and sail ships; they
Drlng the products Oh edTln anu hed 10 uldIhc1'
they open and work mines; they build railroads.
they keep the spindle and shuttle in motion.
Political economists have been in advance Of
judges in recognizing the utility of combinations.
Adam Smith pronounced the English laws, which
are now being re-enacted in this country, as alb
surd as the laws against witchcraft. John Stuart
Mill says that large systems of business for
large markets are whslly beneficial. and that the
productive power of industry must suffer by
whatever impedes the formation Of large capitals
Henry Carey says the more perfect the power of
association the greater is the power of produc-
tion and she larger the proportion of the product
which falls TO the laborer's SHARE All modern
economists agree that experience has settled the
once doubtful problem; that combination of
persons skill and capital is indispensable and is
in the public interest," that these aggregatOns
must grow as markets widen and business grows,
and that we are destined to see new developments
of the power of aggregated capital TO serve civil
ization The lesson of experience is that although
the direct and primary tendency of combinations
is to lessen competition their ultimate effect is TO
stimulate competition and to place it on a higher
and more effective plane
The last quarter of century has been en-
phatically an era of combination in business. Has
competition been destroyed? On the contrary it
combination begets combination. New industries
built up-new markets are Opened-new
methods Of manufacture invented. 1t is the
law Of life BY each striving TO get ahead all
make better progress.