The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-29
TRADE COMBINATIONS,
Condsmnatory Review of A1dace +. Walk
er's Paper Defending the Trusts.

ers Paper Defending the Trusts.
From the Chicago Tribune.
Aldace F. Walker, once a member of
the interstate commerce commission
and now chairman of the board of di-
rectors of the Santa Fe road, con-
dennis, in an article in this months
Forum, the antitrust legislation found
on the statute books of the United
States and of so many states He as
serts that that legislation is faulty in
that 1t is an attempt to stife legiti-
mate efforts to ameliorate competitive
conditions-prohibitin where it should
nave regulated-and that that legisla-
ton has induced evils far worse than
imam those 1t attempted to remedy.
Mr.. Walkers starting point is the as
sumption that in former times competi-
tlon required stimulation, but that at
the present day it needs regulation. He
lays stress on 1.-The excessive and dan
Serous strinsency of modern COMPETE
tion,' which makes the survival of the
unfittest competitors so difficult Mr.
walker thinks the intense competition
of this day should be shackled, lest it
hurt the weaklings, and he is of the
opinion that the best regulation is that
which can be obtained by agreements
among the competitors themselves
That is to say, he believes in pooling
agreements not merely for railroads,
but for all industries where keen COM
petition exists.
The first combinations which were
formed to regulate what Mr.. Walker
calls the dangerous stringency of mod
ern competition We're correctly styled
trusts" All the stocks of the combin
ing corporations were assigned to trus-
tees. The shares of stock We're locked
up in safes and trust certificates re-
placed them. Mr.. Walker is unable to
see anything Objectionable in that prac-
tice He does not believe the people
would have become excited if some of
the beneficiaries of the trusts had not
become rich. Extraordinary wealth in
unexpected hands, aroused jealousy
suspicion and hostile action. Mr.
Walker does not even intimate that the
fact that that wealth was eXtorted
from consumers had the most to do
with the popular detestation of trusts.
The public was made to believe, says
Mr.. Walker, that trusts were COM
binations in restraint of trade" where
as they We're only lin restraint of COM
petition in trade" Therefore laws were
enacted against trusts which were eff
fectual so far as breaking up the
trusts proper was concerned. There
upon competitors, being unable to COM
bine, to consolidate. A new corporation
is organized which buys outright the
properties of corporations or individ-
uals willing to sell out to it. This is,
says Mr.. Walker, in violation of the
theory of the antitrust laws, but not
of their letter. Those laws, he contends,
cannot be enforced against the new
style industrial combinations because
no man can be prevented from selling
his property to whomsoever he pleases
Mr. Walker looks with disfayor on
the promoters who are flooding the
too
overcapitalized combines, but he al
leges that antitrust legislation is in
directly the parent of these illegitimate,
speculative schemes for it pointed the
way to their development Mr.. Walker
admits that the new methods" have
thrown out of employment many COM
petent men. who have managed small
concerns. He sets off against that the
ability of small investors ito become
partners in large concerns-by buying
stock for more than it is worth and
waiting in vain for dividends.
There are phases of the trust question
which Mr.. Walker does not touch on.
These are the assistance given certain
trusts by excessive tariff duties and
given others by the illegitimate ad-
vantages obtained from railroads; and
this is subject that he knows most
about. His object is to attempt to
show that trusts are d natural salu-
tary growth which should have been
regulated, not prohibited. He believes
that monopoles are legitimate when
the monopolists are of that opinion.
Wherever men combine to destroy
competition on the ground that if they
do not competition will destroy some of
them, Mr.. Walker bids them godspeed
Fortunately for the consumers and
most of the producers his sentiments
are not those of the lawmakers and the
courts.