The Nome nugget., 1902-10-01
THE ULTIMATE OF THE TRUST.

Truth is always rejected when it comes to a man for the first time. First, say the thing is rank heresy and contrary 10 the Bible second we say the matter really amounts to nothing one way or the other; third, VIC declare always believed it.
 Two hundred years ago partnerships in business were very rare. man n business simply made things and sold them, and ali the work was done by himself aud immediate family. Soon we find in stances of brothers continuing the work the father had begun, in the case of the Ezevirs ard the Plantins, the great bookmakers of Holland. To meet this competition four printers, in 1640 formed a partnership and pooled their efforts local writer by the name of Van Kruger denounced these four men and attacked partnerships in general as wicked and illegal, and opposed to the best interests of the people. This view seems to have been quite general for there law in Amsterdam forbiddng all busi- ness partnerships that licensed by the state The legislature of Missouri, year two ago. made war on the department stores in the same way, using the Van Kruger argument, for there is license on stupidity.
 We are told that in London, in the seventeenth century, found guilty of pooling their efforts and dividing profits, were declared guilty of con- tumacy, connivance and contraycntion" and given a taste of the "stocks." When corporations were formed for ke first time not so many years ago. there WSS V llHe DuIsI or ulsap lrOVal. Inc corporation declarced a scheme of oppression hungry octo- pus, grinder of the individual. And to prove the various instances of hardship were cited and no doubt there much suffering for many people can not adapt themselves to new conditions without pain
 Nowadays, however, we have come to believe that corporations came because they were required Ger tain things the times demanded and no one man, or two or three men, could perform these tasks alone ha,co hn Tho ric a manufacturing nation began with the joint stock company. The aggregation known the joint stock company, it is now admitted was absolutely neces- sary secure the machinery that is the raw stocks the tools, the buildings and to provide for the per- manense of the venture The railroad system oi America has built up the country Commerce says Emerson 'conssts in taking things from where they plentiful to where they are needed.'
 There are ten combinations of capital in America that control over six thousand miles of railroad each These companies have absorbed great many small lines, and a great many connecting lines have been built. Competition vast sections of country has been practically obliteratcd. Only general resul of this consolidation of management has been felt and that is better service at less expense No captain of any great industrial enterprise dares to say "The public be damned,' even if he ever said it which is to be doubted The pathway to success lies m serving the public, not in afronng it. By nc other means is possible and the truth is plain and patent that very simple folk recognize it. You can only help yourself by helping others When P. T. Barnum launched the famous saying :" the public delights to be humbugged," he knew ii was not true; for he never attempted to put the axiom into practice.
 The tendency of the world at large is to cooper 'ate As mankind multiplies in number, the problem of supplying people what they need is the important question of earth. To undertake to supply people thing that they do not want is to have your heaG elevated pike, and your bones buried in the pot ter's field.
 In commerce we have had the individual worker the partnership, the corporation, and now we have the trust The trust is partnership of corporations The thing seems to be an evolution-a moving for ward It is all for man, and it is all done by man It is all done with the consent and approval of man The trusts made by the people, and the people can and will unmake them, just surely as they prove an eng inc of oppression. They will exist only during good behavior, and, like men, they live under sentence of death with indefinite repreve. Much may be said for the trust. They are encouragers o snergy they cut off waste and make overproduction impossible; also panic.
 Trusts, therefore, are an evolution. They came in the order of things, and the next of evolu hon will be socialism. Socialism means the opera ting of all industries by the people and for the people 1t is cooperation instead of competition. Competi ton has been mistaken by economists for law oj nature, when it is only an incident. The trusts are getting ready for socialism. They do not believe it. neither will the reader, perhaps. but no unbiased man. who has kept in touch with the economic