Austin's Hawaiian weekly. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1899-190?, 1899-07-01

such agreements IN nearly every State and city,
they have been compelled to withdraw from fur
ther business in Arkansas and to let the people
there bear their own fire losses Business in
terests are suffering and mass-neetings have been
held to protest against the severity of this law.
These laws are similar to those of our fore
fathers which were intended to regulate values
prices and trade. They prevent the free and bene-
fcial exchange of products and interfere with
progress"
The magnitude of the trust agitation in the
United States can be appreciated when the Amer
ican Re0iesv of ResieaVS has seen fit in the June
number to give more than one-half of its waltz
able editorial space to articles on the subject 1t
says, in part:
IF the organization of labor even to the eX-
tent of the complete and monopolistic control of
great many important trades, is defensible and
is a part of the natural and unavoidable move
nlent of economic society in our age, it may be
none the less true that the combination of capital
engaged in given line of industry is also in
the main trend of our economic development, and
therefore not to be prevented either by denunca-
ton or by enactmerts Up to certain point the
old-fashioned competitive system was not waste
full, but, on the contrary afforded a useful regua-
tion of production and of price. The whole
tendency, however, of business progress -espe-
cially in country like ours where vastness of
natural resources and the rapid growth of popua-
enterprises conducted OH large scale-seemed
to render the competitive system inadequate and
wasteful.'
"The word trust as applied to this new method
of analgamaton in industrial production is not
accurate or well chosen. Some years ago, it is
true, the name fairly applied to several combna-
tions. Their plan was not to consolidate what
had been competing properties, but to escape the
wastefulness of the competitive methods and gain
numerous advantages that would accrue from
union and harmony. The respective owners did
not give up the ownership of their properties but
they assigned their holdings of stock to COM
mon board of trustees, which was authorized to
operate the plants as one system, although sepa-
rate corporations were nominally maintained.
This arrangement which constituted trust in
the literal sense, was assailed on legal grounds
and was abandoned"
1t is quite true that the magnitude of the oper-
ations in the United States make large combina-
tions necessary for the economic handling of the
vast and diversified products, and it is an open
question whether the saving of wasted energy is
not benefit to the nation at large in putting the
American people on basis which enables them
to compete in commerce with foreign nations. 1t
certainly must have been something of a surprise
to American labor organizations to note the Eng
lish view of their brother worklen across the At
lantic upon the subject of trust combinations In
speaking of the ease with which American firms
are obtaining English orders in competition with
established concerns at home Mr.. George N.
Barnes, Secretary of the Amalganated Society
of Engineers, is quoted as saying that:
"The great advantage enjoyed by American
producers arises from the Capitalization of indus
try. American combines, whatever temporary
result to the status of WOrkfnen have certainly