The herald., 1897-08-16
The Trust a Result. lot a Cause

To the Editor Of the Los Angeles
Herald: I gather from Mr.. Van Dykes
article in The Herald of August 18th,
headed, "Killing Trusts" that he re-
CARDS the trust" as simply the natural
outcome Of necessity to prevent over
production and the ruin of cut-throat
competition. He regards antitrust laws
as impossible of execution without prac-
tically destroying every business in the
country.
Trusts, by the economies effected-by
GENERALIZATION of administration and the
concentration of large masses of capi-
tai, are enab bled to produce cheaper, and
the consumers of sugar, oil, ETC., are ac-
tually buying their goods for less today
than they would be with a number of
competing producers furnishing the sup
ply. There Is really nobody today who
has any grievance against the trust !"
The consumers, representing the gen.
eral public, have no kick coming as long
as they can buy cheaper than before
The would-be competitors Of the"trust"
have either been absorbed or ruined
so long ago that they no longer dream of
raising a howl because the public won't
back them up In hopeless struggle for
lie has troubles enough Of its own with
out bothering about such a small minor
ity. AS for the railroads that Mr. Van.
Dyke seems to think have the best rea-
son to kick about the trusts, it suficeth
to say that if the trusts had no fear
of complaints except from railways they
would sleep easy. There are too many
people who own stock in both trusts"
and railroads to allow any genuine fight
to occur, even IL there were a cause.
Nevertheless and Notwithstanding all
the foregoing, which is strictly IL ac-
cordance with my own views. Mr.. Van
Dyke winds UP by Insisting that the
trust" must "go," because the ''intelli-
gence of the country Is against them,"
and this is where we differ.
1 deny that the Intelligence Of the
country is against them" There is
very large class Of thinkers who are
strongly in favor of trusts" because
they consider them necessary steps in
social evolution to the general co-opera-
tive system. Perhaps Mr.. Van Dyke is
not aware that in Germany, the country
today where the deepest attention is be-
ing paid to economic subjects, 1t is rec
ognized that the trust" is an economic
necessity.
The supreme court of the German en-
pire has just declared that trusts are
legal. 1t says:
when in certain industrial branches
the prices of such products are sinking
too low, thereby making impossible or
endangering a successful business there
of, the crisis which necessarily follows is
ov1x oto tn
but also to the political economy in
general. 1t is therefore in the interest
of the whole community that inadequate
low prices shall not prevail too long in
any industrial branch. For this reason
the formation of syndicates and trusts
has been designated by several authori-
ties as means which, when properly
adopted, would prove remarkably expe-
dient to prevent eXtravagant and detri-
mental overproduction."
However it wouldn't make any diff
ference whether the Intelligence of the
country" was for or against the trust"
about it's remaining with us.
| The Intelligence of the country" has
| been wrong a good many times before
this and is likely to be good many times
again before the peanut man finishes
our education. The Intelligence" said
Calico was wrong and that the sun
moved. 1t said Columbus was fool.
1t denied the possibility of a steamer
crossing the Atlantic. 1t jeered at the
telegraph in its inception.
The trust is a result 1t is the effect
of cause, namely of production"
There is but one way of preventing
EFFECT and that is to remove cause"
If an epidemic of typhoid fever breaks
out in the village and the water supply
is discovered to be polluted, would the
Van Dykes and the rest of the "intelli-
gence" "resolve that the fever must go"
and yet do nothing to remove the cause,
namely, the bad water? Typhoid fever
is just as immovable to threats from the
intelligence as the trusts"
If you heat water to 212 degrees ii
must boil, and no legislature nor court
can pass a law that will prevent this
natural phenomenon. Let competition
get hot enough in any trade and
trust" is sure to e1fervesce. Pass your
laws commanding water to run up hill
as long as you please but it will run
down all the same.
This country and, for that matter, ev-
cry other country is now finally within
the last ten years, with the aid of steam
and electricity, able to produce three
times as much as can be sold; result
chronic state of overproduction, modi-
fled by the trusts
The trust affords the captains of in
dustry a haven of refuge from the gale
of competition, but unfortunately it only
provides for a small number of the
crews HaVemeyer makes more money
by running half of his retineries than by
running all, but what about the work
men in the idle refineries? 1t is true that
he cannot employ them except at loss
and they admit it, but this knowledge
don't fill their stomachs,
The period of the trust" is destined to
be short one in the process of economic
evolution, not because the "intelli-
gence" is against it, but simply because
its appearance is a symptom of an acute
state of the unemployed question being
near at hand.
The trusts have ruined their hun
dreds of capitalists, but we can stand
that without fear of social collapse
The great danger that is now threaten
ing us is not the determination of a few
weak capitalists, but the starvation of a
nation of strong laborers eager to work,
but for whom no employment can soon