The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-10-01
Amount E.: of Advertising
carried by the Twin City
Papers for September:
A Hard Question.

Mr. John Durham Is evidently gem
: tleman who prefers concrete instances to
F. abstract congratulations. He submits the
=, following brief petition for information:
In your editorial in r h e j urn
u of Sept 20, entitled Trust Extremists,
you say that little. corporations are good
!. and bad and so are big ones. VIII you
= kindly give me the names Of a half dozen
. good trusts and a half dozen bad ones,
s. through the columns OF your paper.
: This question is certainly a poser. It Is
easy enough to say that big corporations
are good and bad, just as little ones are.
1t is quite within the realm of the proba-
BILE that a big corporation may be benefi-
q Gently managed as it is within the realm
;. of certainty that small corporations are
managed in good way.
But when it comes to picking out the
( good trusts, we confess that the task is
{ no easy one. If the question were applied
b merely to big corporations, without
:; regard to whether they constitute trusts,
there might not be great difficulty in
picking six good ones, but to find six
j. trusts that are good Is something that
staggers us.
. The truth is, there Is bad side to
. every trust. The United States Steel COR
poration is generally regarded as q
good trust In the sense that it
= does not try to crush what COM
petition it has, that it maintains
Z q fair price for ore, that 1t keeps lake
freights at living rates and in that It does
: not practice extortion. AS a steadying
: agent for the iron and steel industry Of
= the United States. 1t performs very
= valuable service. But when we reflect
that J. Pierpont Morgan and associates
] made $56, 900 900 In, financing the trust,
b on an investment of $25, 900, 900; and that
4 the water in the capitalization Is esti-
y mated at 100000, 900. we cannot pro-
L nounce this trust altogether good The
+ Standard Oil company would be classed
i as a good trust by many people. It has
/. greatly reduced the price and improved
+ the quality Of Illuminating oil. 1t is
. doubtful IL the price would be so low as it
& is to-day If there were dozen competing
+ companies. But, viewing the oil trust
y from the standpoint of it's extinct com
petitors, it shows UP in bad light. It's
great army Of hired men have taken the
( places that would have been filed by q
great many small businesses with indie
pendent men at the head Of them, and its
: employees are probably worse off than they
would be with independent companies in
the field.
MI Every. trust we can think Of has good
q and bad side. We frankly confess our In
u ability to pick out six good ones
Probably no two people would agree or
i such a group. unless they were preferred
" stockholders in each Of the six. But Their
y 1t ia true that every forward step In the
worlds history has it's bad as we'll as It.
good side. The Introduction OF machinery
is generally held to be good. yet 1t ha.
brought the keenest suffering to thou
sands and millions. So far 1t has ap
peared to most people that mere bignes.
OF corporation is inevitably associated
with badness. This may be merely be-
cause the evils Of a corporation are NOR,
impressive In proportion as the corpora
Sy tons size is impressive.
But between the trusts which almost al
the people hold to be bad. the acknowl
edged capacity and opportunity. Of al
trusts to work enormous evils: and TIN
widespread popular apprehension tina