The record-union., 1893-07-15
The Massachusetts Highway Commits
sion puts the whole question in this way:
DOES CAPITAL COMBINE.

The Chicago Herald has done a service
in clearing away good deal of misun-
Outstanding among certain people re-
garding combinations of capital" The
term is used with unwarranted freedom.
| The Herald cannot be charged with any
special friendliness to capital, and its
statement is therefore all the more to be
given weight. AS matter of fact, says
! the Chicago paper, Mr.. Justice Brewer
was mistaken when in his Fourth of July
address he constantly referred to the
combinations and conspiracies of capt.
tal' for capital does not combine. 1t is
the one thing that avoids conspiracy and
combination, because it is the one thing
that cannot afford those luxuries.
Now it is well, as our contemporary
remarks, to measure our words when
discussing financial propositions. 1t is
folly to deceive ourselves into a belief
that has no sounder bottom than mere
meaningless wording. The trusts and
combines of which 50 much complaint is
made, and the operations of which justly
engage our grave attention and awaken
the concern OF every lover of the country,
are not combinations of capital. Money
capital is not used in their formation. not
cent of it. They are paper concerns
always; corporations without money
capital; organizations based on paper
agreements between mines, and factories
and businesses to run an open or close
business, to manufacture more or less, to
sell in accordance with certain schedules,
to trade in certain fields, and not in
others, and so on. They are agreements
not to manufacture beyond a certain
limit, or to not manufacture at all, under
certain conditions dependent upon con-
sumption; 50, too, they are agreements
not to mine, or produce, on much the
same basis.
Now, well says our contemporary,
these are really combinations of indus
try, conducted to secure for the promoters
VIC llINA4SsI NLANh 10 capital. LUZ AllOl4SE
does not combine, save when it seeks to
protect itself 1t is always ready to work,
TO hire out, to rent its services. 1t wants
the highest wage, but if it cannot get ten
per cent. it will take seven, or six, or five,
or even four, just as the competition for
1t is great or small. Capital does not form
trusts and combinations, because they are
impracticable with money.
Capital. meaning money that is invested, or
is seeking investment. IS a more aggrC sSiVe
competitor than any other agent OF ciVIliZa-
ton. Money, or the owner of the money.
which is the same thing, strives more indus
triOusly, plans more cunningly, watches more
vlgilantly for profitable EN- plOyment than
LABOR strives, plans and watches for employ
ment. A aborng man will knock of work if
wages are reduced.
But this is not true Of capital, money
capital; it stands wage reduction, save at
rare intervals when common distrust
locks money up, so that it cannot seek
employment or accept offers of invest
ment. For it is unnatural for capital to
remain idle-its nature is activity, heart
less activity for the sake of gain.
Money will pick up, without scruple and in
greedy glee, q scheme of profit right from I'M
der the eyes or hands OF another money
owner. Capital combines against common
enemies like bad laws, fraudulent enterprises
and confidence games generally. But it al
ways will grab for good thing, even when
the hand of another is almost on the prize.