The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1901-07-20
SOME TRUST TRUTHS.
frof. sumner, of Yale, Takes q Res~
sonsbIe View Of Capitalized
Combinations.

OF the coterie of college professors
who championed the cause of free
trade Is years ago no man was more
conspicuous in point OF ability or
more radical than Prof. w. q. Sumner.
of Yale. He ii was who declared that
data gathered from experience had no
place I'm the discussion of the tariff
question, as all discussion of the topic
should be based upon assumptions.
Prof. Sumner recently wrote an ar
ticle for the New York Journal OF
Commerce upon trusts and wealth
production which will not comfort
those persons who insist that a pro-
tective tariff is the chief promoter of
combinations in manufacturing. He
makes no allusion to free trade or
protection in his article. Prof. Sum
ner does not antagonize trusts; far
from that, he regards them as the re-
suit of new conditions in production,
training and skill. He maintains that
the discoveries and inventions of the
nineteenth century, particularly in
the field of transportation and the
transmission of intelligence, have
made large combinations possible.
Once made possible, combinations to
organize industries on a comprehen-
sive scale are profitable. The produc-
ton of wealth is the tendency of the
age in all civilized countries, and the
trust Is one Of the methods of such
production. To produce wealth is the
leading characteristic of the time
among all classes. Every mile of rail-
road is built for the primary purpose
of creating wealth, and so of every
other industry. He holds that the in
dustrial combination is an agent for
the creation of wealth, and that any
attempt to arrest the development OF
the trust is an attempt o arrest wealth
production. TT would reduce the
comfort of the population and 1t would
be kind of industrial suicide" is the
startling declaration of the Yale pro-
fessor in regard to the attempt to
crush our Industrial combinations on
wide scale.
Prof. Sumner says the value of ex-
tensive combination in the productions
of wealth is probably overestimated.
In a general way, the combination il
in it's experimental stage. Such COM
binations have been made upon the
assumption that great savings can be
made in the processes of production
and in the steadying of prices. The ex-
perience of some combinations has
not proved that the trust results in
cheaper production. Some combina-
tons, like the Standard Oil. have pro-
duced wealth far beyond the increase
which would have been possible had
production been unrestricted, while
other combinations have gone to
pieces. The number that is not sue
cessful is probably greater than the
number that have made satisfactory
returns.
Prof. Sumner is not troubled in re-
| gard to the future of trusts. Free
trader, democrat and all that, he be-
holds no alarming danger in industrial
combination, probably because he IL
not an alarmist and a demagogue. So
he goes on calmly to suggest that
trusts will be regulated by reasonable
and suitable legislation, such as has
been enacted for the regulation OF
| joint stock companies. He expresses
the opinion that there is no evil and
danger in trusts which are nearly SO
menacing to society as some of the
measures which have been proposed
for destroying trusts. "No one can
devise any law" says the professor.
"by which it can be made crime for
any number of persons to unite their
capital and efforts in the production OF
wealth in lawful enterprise" 1t il
when the trust resorts to devices to
restrict the freedom of commerce that
it becomes a menace, and for such of
lenses laws can be devised.
There are many Indications that
practical people are beginning to bet
ter understand the trust, or, at least.
are in frame of mind to consider tho
subject calmly and intelligently. When
the forming of combinations is re-
garded as a result of industrial and
commercial conditions incident TO
progress in civilization, as Prof. Sum-
ner regards them, control rather than
determination will be the topic con-
sidered by people of judgment, but
the people who attribute their exist
| ence to other than real causes and de-
nounce and demand impossible rene
dies are, as Prof. Summer has said,
n greater menace than the trust.-In-
dianapolis Journal.