New-York tribune., 1902-12-31

discriminatory enemies. because that element
Is not absolutely sure that they enemies.
~ may appear from more light and further ex-
perlence that they are the instruments by which
the United States has raised itself TO the first
rank as commercial country and then It would
oe 1ClIS inCeeC TO destroy them.
The legal history of England shows that that
country felt the necessity many years ago Of
! restricting the tesm of existence we'll as the
Mons The reason announced for this action
when il taken was that such Il corpora ton
e eouIu 20 Oh from year 10 year ana aud
held to field and power to power. until it would
become stronger than the government itself. Its
activities were not bounded by the grave, as
are those of a natural person, and thus per
petual existence. with an unlimited right TO ac-
qulre property, made it possible for such in
stitution to become so powerful to be a
menace to the state. The judicial law and the
statutes of the various States I'm the Union
We're tinged with this principle of the English
law until within a comparatively brief period.
One other principle which the courts had al
most unanimously announced was that one cor
poration could not hold the stock of another.
and that two or more corporations could not
consolidate. 1t was In an attempt to avoid
these we'll settled principles that the early Sugar
Trust and the Standard OIL Trust got into
trouble and were both declared to be illegal by
the courts. At about this time the legisa lures
of a few of the States passed acts greatly in
creasing the amount of capital stock which a
corporation was allowed to hold. Then came
an act enabling one corporation to hold the
stock of another. The corporations were quick
to seize the privileges
Last of all came the right of two or more
corporations to consolidate At last all re-
strictions on the amount or capital or the term
of existence were swept away, and this clear
field paved the way for the creation of the
present gigantic trusts which a decade ago
would have been Illegal combinations This
entire movement for the creation of great cor
porations. without limit as TO capital and terms
OF existence, began about ten years ago., The
Standard Oil Trust which was subsequently,
ordered dissolved by the courts was organized
III 1SS2, but the present Standard Oil Company
was not formed until the early nineties The
same course was followed by some of the other
trusts which were copied after the Standard
OH Trust. The courts had declared them il
regal, and they simply dissolved and formed big
corporations under the then recently passed
enabling statutes The United States Anti
trust law was approved on July q 1890 but il
became practically imperative few years later
as to many combinations which 1t affected
when passed, simply because these Organizations
dissolved their illegal trusts and formed per
fectly legal corporations. All this is given
merely as sketch of this unique feature Of the
hations industrial growth without intent TO
crlticlse or commend the policy which brought
tnese great corporations into existence
The hgures and other information contained In
lhls arucle nave been taken largely from tbe
prGof sheets of The Tribune Almanac for 1902
Great care has been expended on this publica
ton, and IL is rich mine of financial CONNER
cial and political statistics, besides containine
nluch other useful and necessary information
Inc tables are more complete and the editing
mas been done more carefully perhaps in this
thaI In any previous edition of the Almanac if
such a thing is possible. No professional or
| hi4'nsAS man can afford TO be without It.