The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-07
CARNEGIE ON TRUSTS.
Reflections on Their Material and Moral
 Sides.

|
 Sides
 The trust question has two aspects.
 one material and the other moral If
 we were able to separate these aspects
 completely, and look at the materia
 side alone there can be little doubt that
 we should find the merits of combina-
 tion of capital far outweighing its evils. 1 It has often been shown--and never
 more cogently than in MT. Carnegies | article in the current Century-how
 these combinations are attended at
 once with economy of toll and Increase l of production: how the gain which re-
 suits from this change is not monopo- | lized in @ few hands, but is distributed { among the masses of the people; how | the effort on the part of the promoters
 of such combinations to keep the gain to
 themselves, instead of thus distributing | it, results in failure; and how, in all I probability, the chief loss from trusts I falls, not on those who have dealings with them but on the deluded investors, l who suffer from such misjudged efforts. l But there is another side to this whole | question. We have to consider not merely the aggregate effect on the com 1 fort of the people nor the relative ef- 1 feet on the comfort of different classes, l but the effect on American ideas and in- stitutions. Our social order is based on I the principle that we should try to give | every man a fair chance. We strive above all things else to secure indepen- 1 dence of thought and action. We should rate very low a community which in providing its members with l comfort, failed to provide them also with public spirit. We are far from re- alizing all our ideals in actual practice. Yet we have come nearer to their reali- zation than any other people in the world; and we cannot but regard with grave distrust, from the standpoint of national development, an industrial change which threatens to crowd us away from such realization.
 It will not do to ignore the material prosperity of capital and the difficulty of securing this prosperity in any other way. But it is necessary 10 accentuate the fact that there sfe other things be- sides material prosperity to be taken into account, and that the nation which first learns to combine higher degree of individual independence with the same, or approximately the same ad- vance in collective wealth will take the lead in, the industrial race which the different peoples of the world are now so closely contesting,
 Every attempt to monopolize the man ufacture of any staple articles carries within it's bosom the seeds of failure. Long before we could legislate with much effect against trusts there would be no necessity for legislation. The past proves this and the future is to confirm it. There should be nothing but encouragement for these vast aggrega- tions of capital for the manufacture of staple articles. As for the result being an increase of price to the consumer beyond brief period, there need be no fear. On the contrary, the inevitable result of these aggregations is, finally and permanently, to give to the consul mer cheaper articles than would have been otherwise possible to obtain; for capital is stimulated by the high profits IA against it. The result is very soon a capacity of production beyond the wants of the consumer and az the new works erected are of the most improved pat tern, and capable of producing cheaper than he old works, the vulnerable | trusts are compelled to buy and capi- talize at two or three times their cost 1 There is thus no danger ahead to the | community from trusts, nor any cause for fear.
 The great natural laws being the out | growth of human nature and human | needs, keep on their irrespective course. | Competition in all departments of hu- | man activity is not to be suppressed. | The individual manufacturer who is | tempted into the unusually profitable | business of the trust will take care of | the monopoly question and prevent in- | jury to the nation. The trust, so far as | aggregation and enlargement go, is one day to be recognized as a grand step | toward cheaper products for the peo- pie than could have been obtained by | any other mode than the aggregation of capital and establishments. Already | the ghosts of numerous departed trusts
 
 marched across the stage of human af- fairs, each pointing to its fatal wound. inflicted by that great corrective, con- petition. Like the ghosts of Macbeths the line promises to stretch longer and longer, and also like those i phantoms of the brain, they "come like shadows, so depart"
 The earth hath bubbles as the water |
 hath,
 And these are of them.
 The masses of the people, the toiling are soon to find in this great law of aggregation of capital and of another of those beneficent agencies which in their operation tend to bring to the homes of the poor, in greater degree than ever, more and more )f the luxuries of the rich, and into heir lives more of sweetness and light | The only people who have reason to