Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-04-28
WHITTIER ARE WE Drifting?

No topic has excited wider ommen
than the modern trust. To the average
man it presents a phase Of possibilities
inimical to the welfare of the republic
and destructive to the liberties of the
people. So general has this impression
become thai it is regarded as treason to
the cherished institutions of our country
to see a ray of sunshine in the trust-like
trend of events.
While it may be true there is little in
the situation to offer immediate encour-
m to the socialistic idea of the
equable distribution of wealth, present
conditions must be recognized as a logi-
cal growth in the business life of the ma
ton. Time was, not many long Years
ago, when the man who wanted a barrel
went out into his back yard and made
it. If he needed a suit of clothes his
patient wife wove the cloth on the family
loom. And so on through a long list of
the necessaries of life. Then came the
days of the iourneyman--the travelling
tinker. who mcnded the family shoes, re-
newed the vitality of the kitchen ware,
put new legs into the dining table and
new courage into the heart Of the toiling
housewife. Then came the village shop
and then The factory. The family loom
and spinning wheel - the backyard
coope shop-1isappeared.
With factories converting raw ma
terials into cloth. and factories manu-
featuring utensils for the farm, and the
comforts OF home life, came the partner
ship, the company and the corporation.
When the Injuries of yesterday became
the necessities of today, and the world
demanded q free rein for the unbridled
ambitions of tomorrow, corporations, by
developed the trust.
And the trust is here. 1t is idle to be-
moan its presence. 1t did not spring
into existence like Minerva springing
from the brain of Jove, but came about
as a matter OF growth. 1t is a feature of
modern business life, and must be re-
garded as such. It's advent into the
commercial world is a part of the process
of that business evolution that trans
planted the family loom into the factory.
Being the outgrowth of a system that
has matured into gigantic combinations
of capital, by successive steps responsive
to a constantly increasing demand for
the products of the age, the trust of to-
day must be regarded, not as a political
issue, but as a business situation, to be
intelligently studied as to it's future
effects upon the civilized world.
In the days of the backyard cooper
shop and the family loom a man could
go into business with a capital of a few
hundred dollars. Later on, when the
corporations We're organized to operate
factories and cheaper the cost of both
the luXuries and the necessaries of life,
it required a larger capital for the indi-
vidual to conduct an independent bust
ness enterprise. With the formation of
the trust the small capitalist finds him
self unable to compete, and must, like
his humber neighbor, work for wages
The man with $40, 900 or $40, 900 finds him.
self drawn into the same vortex thai
some years ago swallowed up the fellow
who could command only from ST 600 tc
81 800 for business investment. He. too
must become a wage Garner, for he car
compete with a trust no more success.
fully than did the smaller capitalist with
the corporation which ante-dated the
combine
In this way the trusts will absorb by
degrees the Independent business inter.
ests of the country, until a commercial
feudal system shall nave been estab.
lished. Then one of two things will
necessarily happen. They may become
top-heavy and topple, precipitating a ricl
mans panic, or they may seek self-pres.
ervation and continuity of effort by
adopting the cooperative system.
The interests of different lines of bust
ness enterprise, represented by the re-
spective trusts. are relative and inter.
dependent. If all lines are ''cornered" by
a~ggregations of wealth. which regulate