The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-08-28

bv the trusts. It is the trend of the
times; it is bringing accurate think
ing and thorough organization to
bear upon the great problems of pro
duction. The advantages of this
process have now been so we'll learn
ed that the evolution in organization
can V stop. It's formulas must
be applied to every process of life
until they are reduced to a scientific
economy. The President Hadleys
and the advocates of publicity might
as well fix this thing in their minds
first as last. What we call the trusts
are simply the latest development of
organization of the methods of pro-
duction. Because mankind at large
has refused to study these problems
of organization and afew individuals
have mastered the science, those few
individuals are reaping all the bene-
fits.
1t is not part of this discussion to
here go into the methods under
which those organizations have been
fostered by national legislation. 1t
is a mere incident of the situation.
Four chief points present themselves,
and only four
First. The trusts are in the direc-
ton of scientific organization of the
methods of production.
Second. Nearly all the benefits Of
these magnificent organizations now
90 to a few individuals.
Third. It is contrary to the best
interests, of the public and dangerous
to a republican form of government
that these profits should continue to
accumulate in such enormous per-
centages.
Fourth. How r we going to bring
the benefits of scientific organization
into the hands of the many instead
of the few?
A hundred thousand of the best
brains of the world are today en-
gagged on this problem. Most OF
these brains are those of men who
have begun life by believing IN the
system of individual competition.
Therefore they turn away now from
any true solution of the difficulty.
They exchange such valuable sug-
gestions as those regarding social
ostracism and publicity. Why? Be
cause they do not wish to see the
figure of governmental cooperation,
which looms up as the only barrier
to individual accumulation.
A man whose father was one of
the great operators of Wall Street,
who controlled so many millions that
he was able to wreck or make great
business enterprises, said to the
writer recently at a dinner that all
investment was becoming doubtful !;
he did not know where to put a dol
lar. All classes of enterprises yer
so largely at the dispossl of manipu-
lation in the street, me day depress-
ed far below par and the next raised
far above, always with d like pur-
pose, the n of serving individual
interests, that investment in securi-
ties quoted on the street had become
a lottery. 1t was in the power of
four or five men, by manipulation of
the stock or by starting a parallel
enterprise, or by any other of the
numerous methods so we'll known, to
make or break literally anything or
anybody. Here were the methods
of the father being applied to the
sons disadvantage. Greater whales
had appeared in the seas which we're
capable of swallowing the sharks;
the sharks were in jeopardy.
No well-informed man in the bust
ness world of today but believes that
with two or three hundred millions
at his disposal, a brain as able as
some of those now in active careers
may in turn attack and crush one
leading business interest after an
other until even the millionaires may
be swept from the field and prac-
tically all the wealth of the country
concentrated in n great corpora
ton.
1t is lucky that the first man to
perfect a science of business organ
ization should also be a man whose
impulses carry him in the direction
of education. The same means that
build great universities might just
as deftly merge the republic into a