The Minneapolis journal., 1903-12-31
SAYS UNIONS
MAKE TRUSTS
Prof. Henry G. Adams Voices This
Theory in a Speech Before Eco
nomic Association.
Argues That Demands of the Labor
Unions frequently Force Small
Dealers to the Wall.
This Leaves Only the Larger Con-
Germs, Which Unite and Con-
troll Output.

New Orleans, Dec. 31.-In an ad-
dress before the American Economic
association to-day, Professor Henry
c. Adams of the University of Mich
igan declared the formation Of labor
unions to be a provoking cause of trust
organizations First Of these causes,
he said, was the fact that industry,
on it's mechanical side, has developed
more rapidly than on the side of man.
agement and administration, produc-
ing scarcity of business talent. Ihls
he did not regard as a fundamental
explanation of trusts, but as con-
tributing condition Of deep signiti-
canoe, a remedy for which may be
found in commercial education as a
branch of university education.
AS a second cause for the formation
of trusts he instanced transportation
conditions and the railway problem
holding that the temporary collapse
of the competitive principle of control
pertains to the transportation and sale,
rather than to the manufacture of
goods, steam transportation having
effected a revolution in market con-
ditions.
The Railway Problem
''rhis means said Mr.. Adams, that
the railway problem lies at the bottom of
the trust problem altho in making this
statement l am willing to concede that
the solution Of the railway problem con-
sists in the guarantee Of equal facilities
to all shippers at the same price,
The heart of the problem lies deeper. II
the mischievous features of trusts are to
be dssipated thru the agency Of rail-
way reform, our program Of reform
cannot stop short of the claim that
public utility, and not the cost Of service.
should be the ruling consideration in max
ing freight and passenger rates. But,
in my opinion, the railway problem will
not have been solved until the manufaC
ture and the sale of goods is again brought
under the control of normal and healthful
competition.
Should this require the naturalization
of railway property, l find myself con-
strained to admit that the dangers in
cident to such policy. are of relatively
less significance than the dangers with
which our industrial organization is
threatened by the perpetuation and fur
ther development Of manufacturing and
commercial monopolles.
Labor Organizations.
Neither the paucity of business talent
nor the adjustment of railway schedules
to meet the requirements of social needs,
is adequate fully to explain the tendency
toward monopoly among manufacturers.
Mention must be made Of the third cause
equally potent and infinitely more diff
ticult Of adjustment, labor organizations.
The question as to whether trades
to economists, but one feature involved
in this controversy seems to have been
overlooked, namely, that every step in
the rise Of wages, traCeable to the de-
mand of workmen for higher pay, results
in the disappearance Of those employers
who, under the old rate Of pay, were just
able to maintain a profitable existence. .
Concentration Of Industry.
Expressed in sentence, this means
that every successful strike sets In mo-
ton those forces which result in the con-
Centration of industry. Trades unions
may raise wages, but they do SO at the
expense Of the small employer. If this
be true, it Is evident that the solution
of the trust problem or perhaps 1t would
be better to say the adjustment of indus
trial forces and conditions by which the
principle of commercial competition will
be placed again in the seat of control,
can not be attained without final de-
termination of the relative rights and
duties Of employers and employees, and
an organization-partl political, partly
industrial-by which these rights and
duties may be expressed and thru which
they may be realized.