The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-11-20

4NOSA = AMI The AMERICAN MAN.
The one feature of the effect of trust
organization on our social and business
life which is now attracting most atten-
ton is It's effect upon the fortunes Of
the young men of this generation. No one
has undertaken to gainsay the truth
that young men must hereafter look for
ward to a future as hired employees In
greater numbers than was ever thought
OF before the absorption Of the industries
Of the country by the trusts. The con-
clusion cannot be avoided or CLOSED over.
Is change from this condition a pos
sibiiity during the present generation? If
1t is, can it be effected by any other
way than such a change as will call the
old conditions of Industrial administration
into existence? Is there any substantial
reason for looking forward to such a.
change? Nothing short Of a disruption
Of the entire trust system will accomplish
It; and, unless the events Of the present,
as well as Of the past few years, are to
be ignored, there is little present reason
for believing that the trust movement will
be completely destroyed in our time. Not
Withstanding all that has been said and
done since the Inauguration of the anti
trust agitation, these organizations grow
stronger with each advancing month, and
those who are responsible for them show
not the slightest hesitancy about risking
their capital in them.
With the exception of the practice of
medicine, and in a lesser degree the prac-
tee Of law, there is not a profession or
calling open to young men but that its
profitable pursuit involves as a first re-
Quirement employment by a corporation
or aggregation of corporations; and in
the law it is being recognized with in
creased force each day that the lawyer
whose practice is not identified with the
corporations must be content with less
than the highest material success attain
able 1t may be doubted indeed whether
really profitable employment in the law
Is possible to any attorney who is not
sought to a greater or less extent by the
corporations. The freedom of the profess
sion of medicine from the control or in
fuence of the corporations is due entirely
to the very natural circumstance that no
man or woman is likely to have his or
her selection of a doctor made by proxy.
Will the young men of the country be
any worse off for the changed conditions ?
VIII matters equallze themselves for the
young man in the long run, as they have
the knack of doing? The answer to this
question involves in a greater degree than
one is disposed to admit the future of the
prevailing system of corporation and trust
control
To all but comparatively few indie
pendent and enterprising spirits lucrative
employment on salaried basis Is an en-
tirely acceptable relation. Thousands of
men even today are getting their Iivings
through the management of small in
dividual enterprises who would gladly
give up the pursuit If they could only
be assured of steady employment at good
wages. The very few are those who
would in no event sink their individual
independence in such employment Sur
passing ability commands the amplest
compensation through the trusts as much
as it ever did before; and, perhaps, il is
true that the average standard of COM
pensation, all things taken together, is as
high in all callinSs under the trust con-
troll as it was under the old conditions
Does this afford justification from the
social standpoint of their control of
the world of commerce and industry: and
is 1t likely to make them acceptable to
the average man? The active life. whetb-
er in employment or in independent bust
ness, gives but little chance for the exer-
else of individual independence. For
some time to come at least this view
is certain to prevail, and the hostility
to trusts is certain to be very much mod
flied and Influenced by the consideration
mentioned.
But back of all the considerations of
individual expediency there is the feeling
in the American man which has made him
q thing apart for generations in the hui
man species, that his mission on earth
does not make of him merely his BROTH
ers hired man.. This is the sentiment