Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-03-03
Effects Of Inc New York trust Investigation

Legislative committee into the method'
Of trusts doing business in that state Il
ended and the report will not be made
for about ten days. Just what that re-
port will show or what will be sug'
gested by 1t cannot be foretold with
much confidence, much less what VIII
be done about it by the Legislature
What Chairman Lexow of the com
mittee said after the conclusion of the
investigation is of interest though II
does not indicate what remedies If any
will be proposed. He said:
II think that we have brought out
much that Is new, and that the evil
dence has been such as to establish
convictions where only suspicious ex-
listed as to certain evils that result
from the operations of trusts and other
great combinations Of capital. Alto
gether, we are more than satisfied
Monopolies do stifle competition. Such
benefits as the concentration of capital
and producing capacity result in dc
rot reach in the degree that they
should the producers of raw material
or the consumers Of the manufactured
product. There is no doubt in my
mind that the committees report Will
be accompanied by bills which we will
ask to have made laws with q view to
remedy these and other conditions"
OF course the Democrats. the Legis-
lature being Republican, declare that
the investigation was only for political
effect and to frighten the trusts into
more liberal contributions in the future
and that no serious attempt to remove
the abuses will be made That Is
worse than idle talk until it shall be
seen just what is to be done. Nor
should the fact be lost sight of that,
however earnest be the desire TO Sc
cure a remedy any that may be de-
vised will be only experimental with
the chances of efficacy very small in
deed. The problem is not one that any
dozen Investigations will be able to
solve beyond question. Whatever is
undertaken by legislation must neces-
sarily be of a tentative nature. But
whatever happens the public knows
more about the exact nature of trusts
than it did before for much has been
proven that before rested upon suppo-
sition. 1t has been seen that the re-
verse Of what have been commonly re-
garded as good business principles
underly the trust. To stifle COM
petition all sorts OF expedients are re-
sorted to. the consumer does not de-
rive the advantage from the concentra-
ton that he has been commonly sup
posed to; trust methods are of a secret
nature affecting not only the producer
but the middleman. the retailer and
the consumer. the three latter being
placed under tribute The trust reaches
out and controls not ijonly producing
plants but also the stock market. They
can give the nod and the stock goes up
or down. In this way they can reward
their friends at others expense if they
wish to. They water stock. and are in
a situation to adulterate legislation,
they acquire power that affords them
opportunity to tyrannize, ability to ex-
tort and facilities for exerting an in
iluence of such wide extent and weight
as to be positively alarming under the
existing lack of restriction and regula-
lion. There are so-called trusts that
have not the power to do all this for
not all of them have such perfected
methods as the oil and sugar monopo-
lies. but they are striving for it and
when one considers the intelligence and
power behind these enterprises it seems
very probable that if left to themselves
their capacity for mischief is in its in
fancy 1t is not probable that the time
will ever come when a monopoly can
be devised that will take in on 1.-The
ground floor" all who knock for admis-
sion and so there will probably never
be lacking the restraint growing out
of a disposition of one band of capt.
talists to seize from another band a
monopoly the latter may control.
Neither is it probable that the con-
centration of capital will cease to be
necessary to conduct enterprises cor
respondingly concentrated Individ-
ualism will be forced to seek other out
lets for cultivation. But the time is
not likely to pass when the public shall
cease to have rights that combinations
of capital will be bound to respect,
Accordingly it is reasonable to expect
that in some way and at some time
such regulations will be devised as will
deprive the concentration of capital in
the form of monopoly of much of its
power for evil. Meanwhile let us learn
all possible respecting these trusts.
The New York World has been ask
ing Democratic state committeeman
hot II