The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-03-23
OF TRUSTS.
Capitalists Safety is Con
Solidation.
Union Does Not Destroy Indivi-
dualism--Ambition EIeVates
Soul of Men.

In the New York Independent of
Jan. 81, Otis K Stuart, manufacture
er of Philadelphia. Pa, writes as fol-
! lows on THE Next Step in Business"
! forecasting the outcome of the organ
izations of Trusts and laborers Unions:
In a former paper the writer at
tempted briefly to examine some of the
most conspicuous features of the mo-
dern Trust and Union, and to deduce
| generalization that would indicate the
| business tendencies of the time I'm
| der the discipline of these institutions
| the business individuality of the en-
| ployer and his wOrkmen is being slow
| ~ but surely transformed. In the pro-
cess of transformation the existing
methods of business must be displaced
! by a new system, the outlines of which
may even now be traced.
a change of fashion" may seri
ously affect the textile industries of
nation; and social forces are so COM
pick, varied and shifting, that the eco
nomic prophet is but too apt to pre-
dict nonsense. Still. such speculations
as TO the future, however tentative,
have a practical value to both the
man of affairs and the scientist. since
they provoke discussion. which brings
to view just those disturbing influences
that determine the trend of develop
ment, giving to the scientist a formula
and to the man of affairs a policy.
Now, the first thing to be noticed is
| that there will be a rapid increase in
the number of trusts. Those large in
dustries, the products of which are dis
tributed over wide areas, neceSsitating
greatly ramified selling organizations,
will as passing events show, be the
first to pool their interests. Here the
enervating effects of a desperate COM
petition are most severely felt. On
the other hand, laborers in these fields
will be the first compelled to CONSOLE
date their fragmentary personal inter-
ests, to resist the encroachments of
employers upon wages and the hours
of work. Imitation. intelligence. and
the instinct of self-preservation, will
prompt men to experiment with this
or that alternative, and gradually there
will result an Improvement in methods.
Trust will become more and more able
| to resist the persistent efforts of the
| Union to raise the scale of wages, the
| tendency of expense to increase, and
the tendency of price to fall; and Union
will grow better and better equipped
| to resist the constant encroachment
and wages Every advance in organic
alton in the one will stimulate effort
| toward improvement in the other; and
| the time must surely come when con-
solidation will be the order of the day,
alike with employer and employed.
He who follows not this lead must in
evitably be crushed beneath the wheels
of progress.
That keen instinct which evolved
the Trust with its sharp eye for eX-
pense. will discover it's own sources of
supply and it's own distributing means;
and the Trust will soon control and
own them. From it's function as manu-
facturer the Trust will reach back
ward to assume that of miner or Gull
tivator. and forward to assume that
of jobber and retailer The hand that
SONS the rye will be the hand that
passes the red whisky over the ruin
Gus bar The man who cuts the cane
will be factor in the same great or
ganiZation as the man who bags the
crystallized sugar by the pound. Dis
tillers may easily become farmers SOW
ing their fields: book publishers be-
come manufacturers of paper and glue;
the electrical capitalist a miner of cop
per and of mica. And, as with the
brewer now, so it may be with great
traders generally; they will retail over
their own counters direct to the con-
sumner.
EXpansion-that force which in the
physical world rends a boiler or a
soap-bubble. and in the moral world
explodes superstitions as inevitably as
atomatic attractions and repulsiOns ar
range a salt into crystals-accounts
for the Trust; and it is thus possible
TO get some conception of the almost
III
ganization must ultimately WELD.
That development of the Trust into a
body having functions which are now
included only in a score or a hundred
smaller bodies, implies the concehtra
ton of unprecedented amounts Of
capital and an unneard-of refinement
of organization. Without the first such
vast enterprises are unthinkable to
business men; without the second,
these vast enterprises. when under
taken, would be ruinously wasteful.
The Trust. so expanded, means the
obliteration of many existing trade
boundaries, and the establishment of
new ones in harmony with its advanc-
ed methods and designs. 1t means, too,
the wiping out of a large class of ex-
listing employers. for these will then
be employees. Traits inherent in hui
man nature and the signs of the day.
tells plainly that this expansion Will
not be consummated without long and
violent struggle. A conservatism bred
in the bone of man will prompt unrea-
soning prejudice and the enactment of
severe legislative restrictions. These
will delay the development of the
Trust and-increase IT'S ultimate eff
cheney. The apparent interests of small
dealers must have a similar effect. by
squirting them TO organize to resist the !
Trusts encroachment upon their terri /
tory and functions. But, finally, the |
real interest of the retailer will force
him. too, to Transformation; and /
while the larger organization reaches |
cinr,.rn q The CON sum The SIN or