The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-08-14

would not have had greater prosperity
 if We had had TO trusts.
 l do not pretend to say what effect
 trusts have had on our prosperity, or
 what effect the general prosperity of the country has had in bringing about
 the formation of new trusts and in in- creasing the size of those existing; but
 because We have had such enormous
 prosperity during this wonderful
 growth of commercial and industrial combination there is no sentiment in
 this country that is deep seated and
 deep rooted against trusts.
 If there was a genuine antitrust
 sentiment among the majority of the
 p*Ople, and it was really desired to
 stop the formation Of new trusts, the way is simple. pointed it out in a published paper some years ago, and
 my practical experience in these mat
 ters since thsn has shown the correct
 ness of that opinion. If the States will permit no corporation to be formed to
 do business which is capitalized at the time of it's formation or at any time
 afterWard for anything except the ac-
 tual cash Yaluue of it's tangible assets, and will not permit good will or hop i es" to be capitalized, there will be few thew trusts. You will thus eliminate the promoters profit, which must out
 of the capitalization of the good will" When you climate the promoters pro- | fit you eliminate the promoter, and
 when you eliminate the promoter you eliminate new trusts.
 l Trusts are dependent for their life or their death upon something entire- i ly differSnt from statutes and decrees.
 It is true that they are now created
 under laws providing, for the forma- tton of corporations, but so are their competitors.
 Two farmer bys come to town study law-the State Iicens.s them to practise. In ten years one of them is on one side or the other of every case in i the country, while the other, driven l back by failure, is again on the farm. l Does the license which the State gave ! them have anything to do with the success of the one or the failure of the other?
 1 If farmer buys one farm, and then another and finally owns acres stretch ing for miles, he, to an extent, has been assisted by the law, because it stood ready to enforce ihs contracts; ! 1t furnished place for him to record his deeds: but the law in no way as- sisted him in acquiring those farms or prevented his Isss successful neighbor from achieving a similar result. This result, in both cases, was brought about by no man-made law; some thing higher did it,
 Many people claim that the laws favor trusts, but that is not true. The law protects your property as an in- i dtVldual; but because it does so it can not be said tha tthe law creates your prosperity. The law protects trusts, as it protects everybody who is carry ing cn a business or practising an avo- cation, but it does nothing for them which 1t does not do for everybody else.
 It has often been said that the pro- tectlve tariff faVors trusts; that. may be true, but it does not favor them any more than it does individuals engaged in the same line of business; and any trust that stakes its prosperity upon the throw of the Congressional dice on the tariff question. and whose exis- tence depends upon the continuance of the protective tariff laws, is certainly in very dangerous position. A trust that would be destroyed by a repeal of the protective tariff is scarcely worthy of serious consideration, from a f1nan- cial standpoint.
 If the managers of trusts wrap them selves in the mantle of their own con- ceit and shut their eyes in the foolish beltef that because forsooth they now own the world they will always own it. their days are numbered. Eternal vi- glance is tn, price of the prosperity of every business whether it's capital is $50 or $5O,OO0, 100000.
 Trusts will live not because they have greater capital, not because they nave plotted out competition, but be- cause they are conscientiously, econo- mically and ably managed.
 Those that do not pursue the correct of business will 20 down. Those that are fortunate enough to do will last Those trusts that serve the public the best will survive, the others will perish off the face of the earth.- From an address on "Trusts' by Hen ry Wollman, delivered at Niagara Falls