The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-08-28
NO CHANCE FOR
SMALL TRADER
Combination Has Taken the
Place Of Competition.
LAWYERS DISCUSS TRUSTS
IMPORTANT SESSION OF BAR as
ISOLATION.


TTOT SPRINGS, Va, Aug. 27.-At the
morning session Of the American
Bar association the annual adj
dress was delivered by Baron D. Cole
OF Rhode Island, United States judge
for the First circuit Judge Colts sub
ject was The Reasonableness Of the
Law"
Walter S. Logan OF New York made
a verbal report from the committee on
commercial law. He commended the
national bankrupt law and then dis
cussed the trust question. He said il
would have TO be settled by the law
yers; if they did not the demagogues
would. If combinations continue, COM
petition viii ces -, and commercial ju-
risprudence win eventually be entirely
changed. The committee, he said, had
reached the unanimous decision that
modern industrial combinations should
be stayed.
Charles T. Henderson Of Nebraska
said the report was calculated to rend
the association asunder- He asked that
the report be read. There was oppo-
sitiOn TO the motion and considerable
confusion ensUed
The convention, however, agreed to
hear the report at once.
Report on Trusts.
On the subject of trusts the report
says this is the important question now
before the American bar 1t says com
binatiOfs are rapidly driving out OF
business the small dealers and the
small producers. These two classes
heretofore have furnished the largest
number Of petitioners in bankruptcy
courts. but now industrial combinations
of gigantic magnitude, too large for a
mi
rich 10 need over to be called before IL,
have been substituted. The report
adds:
THE modern combinations primary
object is 10 control trade and commerce
in plain articles Of production and sub
sutute more or less perfect monopoly
in place of a more or less free COM
petition 1t changes entirely the basic
principle of commercial relations be-
tween man and man. and If they are
to continue to grow and develop in the
future as in the past, viii render neces-
sary most important changes in the
principles of our commercial laws.
Combination as an economic force is
fast coming to take the place Of com
petition. The producers are. combin-
ing, transportation companies are COM
bining, tradesmen are combining,
Workmen as Wen as employees are COM
hining, everything seems II be coming
into some form of combination. and
everybody seems to be a combiner The
competition that still remains is fast
disappearing. Workmen are refusing
To compete for Jobs Labor unions. are
charging the spheres Of their activity
and extending their operations.
Era of Combinations.
The union Of the employers is stI
stronger and more far-reachine than
the union. Of the workmen. I'VE are now
having consultations Of combinations.
The United States Steel corporation is
combination of dozen Heretofore
competing producers. who themselves
were combinations OF still other pro-
ducers, and these in turn often combin-
atoms of still others. To trace them
back to their beginnings is like discov-
ering all the multitude Of sources that
go to make up the volume Of the swol-
len mississippi The property which
the Amalgamated Copper company now
controls was once perhaps a thousand
mining claims. each one very likely
owned in common by a half-dozen min
ers. The department store trust has
combined the business of hundreds or
merchants, some portions Of which they
acquired by purchase and others in
some other way Il is estimated that
the Standard Oil company has taken,
by contract or by force the business
or 10000 corporations and merchants in
all parts Of the Union. The few pres
ent great railroad lines Of the country
have been made up by the combination
of hundreds Of smaller lines. some eX-
tensions of one another and others
competing lines.
Aim Of Shipping Trust.
1.-THE ambition of the shipping trust.
perhaps the pet project of the great
American combines. has been to con-
troll all the ships that sail the ocean.
A hundred years ago there were hardly
two ships owned by the same individ-
ual or corporation. and even fifty years
ago there was scarcely a shipOWner
individual or corporation that owned
half dozen ships. No one knows but
that within the next ten years a great
err than J. p. Morgan viii arise
who viii combine into one organize
ton all the industries Of the land so
that the workman who works for wages
can ind but one possible employer and
the purchaser of wares can find but one.
possible seller. The steps toward the
Iormauon of one universal industrial
corporation which shall crowd out al
other corporations and assume TO itself
all the industries of the land have al
ready been more Than half taken. II is
not so far to go from now to that end
as we mad to go TO reach the present
industrial conditions.
"Holy and Correct"
"a monopoly is economically desira-
bic; that is. for the monopolist The
United States Steel corporation can
produce, no matter what it sells them
for. its goods cheaper than the eIe-
ments out of which the combination is
composed ever produced them The
Standard Oil company is economically
holy. for it pays 30 per cent dividends.
The sugar trust is economically correct
for whereas the individual sugar re-
hners lost money on small capitaliza-
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