The Advocate and news., 1899-03-08

concentration Of business in the best
equipped establishments. We have not
been able to stop the development by
machinery, or the development by in.
Vention In the past; can we stop the
further development Of economy that
may come from the trusts? believe that
1t Is as impossible in one case as 1t has
been In the other. To attempt to pre-
vent the development of the trusts Is to
stand in the way Of the whole tendency
Of the age. We may steer the trusts; we
may In time find methods OF treating
them which shall refer to little later,
but as to trying to stop the trusts or to
smash them-it Is impossible. That
point has not yet been accepted In Amer
lea, however, and you still find political
parties, and politicians talk about smash
ing the trusts or Of them stopping their
growth. Now, while II is quite easy to
denOunce those who form these trusts
for the political corruption, which we
shall note in moment, as often atten-
dant thereon, yet think we ought to see
that the trust formation is not an evil
dence OF depravity on the part of those
who form them; that almost all business
men In the same situation would be
tempted to do likewise. For the average
business man It Is either trusts or ruin.
Competition has developed until few
great business plants only are left COM
peting flercely with one another for the
market with the enormous amounts OF
capital that cannot be diverted to any
other channels. So the trust becomes al
most q necessity to the great corporations
OF the country as they are to-day.
Now, let us notice that the trade union
is trust in many respects, precisely like
the trusts Of large capital. Let us see
some of the similarities and then some Of
the differences. You take the average
worker, who has no special skill, no spe-
cial talent, simply an average carpenter,
an average railroad brakeman or fire.
man. The employer Is not particular
which man he has among the hundred
who come to him for work His chief
thought is to take the man that will work
the cheapest. Now, then, these men
these working men, have two classes Of
expense, just as different as the expense
Of the great corporation. They have the
operating expenses Of food and clothing;
LACy neANO LAO GAJLd CApGAloC WAlCn WOulu
come II they would educate their children
properly and prepare for old age. But
for our purpose at present, we may say
that the wage worker will compete with
his fellow worker until the compensation
for work Is very low. The labor trust,
therefore, becomes practically necessity
for the wage worker just as does the
capitalist trust for the corporation. You
notice that a certain class of wage-work-
ers, having individuality In their work,
such as teachers, physicians, artists, do
not need the labor trust or trade union
The trade union differs from the trust or
combination Of large capital In several
important respects, chiefly this; the la
Dor trust gives an equal vote to every
member, independent OF his wealth, or
the amount that he gives to the union;
virtually every one gives an equal
amount In the shape Of dues, etc. Every
man has an equal vote in the manage
ment; not so with che trust A few con-
troll the trusts although there may be
many investors. Again the laborers'
trust admits every one to membership
who belongs to the trade, and he can at
any time become one Of members in the
Of the trust; not SO with the
trust Of large capital. The labor trust is
a combination of the weak usually in the
interests Of the weak, not Of the strong
in the interest Of the strong, as is the
trust Of large capital.
We pass laws that will prohibit trusts
of large capital, but 1t is very difficult
to frame a law that will apply to one
form Of combination and will not apply
to another in the form Of absolute pTohi- !
bition with penalties, but yet there are
evils In the trusts we must admit. They |
do not stop with restricting prices to that |
which would give normal profit. There
is another evil which we find and that is
the increase Of the number Of the un-
employed. This is done directly by the
of the business in a few |
Of the best-equipped factories and the
closing up Of the rest That, however, Is
only the same policy that Is the result Of