Monopolies and the People | Page 9

was kept up it was impossible to get them to have any
thing to do with each other in a business way. It was no small task to
get these old feuds patched up; but some of the best and squarest men
in the business went right into the work, and at meetings of the
association, and privately, exerted all their influence to forward this
coming together for mutual aid and protection. They did it
conscientiously, too, I think, believing that it was necessary to save
many of us from financial ruin; and that we were not bound, under any
circumstances, to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the public. The
trust has been formed, as every one knows, and many of the things we
planned to do have been already accomplished. We have stopped
adulterations on all goods made by members of the trust; and the
improvement in the quality of linseed oil which has been effected is an
important benefit to the public. We are managing all the works in the
trust as if it were all a single property, controlled by different managers;
and the saving in expense, over the old plan of cut-throat competition,
when everybody was striving to save himself and sink his rivals, is an
enormous one.
One thing which has caused much hue and cry, is the fact that we have
closed half a dozen mills or so. But the matter stood in this way: these
mills were not favorably situated for doing business, all things
considered; and all the mills in the country cannot run all the time,
because there are more mills in existence than are needed to supply the
market. These mills must have been closed soon, if the trust had not
commenced operations, because they could not be run under the old
regime and pay expenses. We knew we could make the oil at a less cost
in our other mills, so we concluded to buy out the owners of these at a
fair price, and shut up the works. Prices of linseed oil have been raised
somewhat, we confess; but we claim that they had been forced down
much too low, by the excessive competition which has prevailed for a
few years past. Of course some of the most hot-headed and grasping
among us, were anxious to force prices away up, when they once
realized that we had an absolute monopoly of the linseed oil trade of
the country; but the great majority were practically unanimous in a
demand for just prices only, and the adoption of the policy of live and

let live; for trust-makers are not entirely selfish.
We claim, moreover, that we are breaking no legal or moral law by this
action. We are, for the most part, private parties or firms--but few
corporations,--hence the attempt to abolish trusts on the ground that the
corporations composing trusts have exceeded the power given by their
charters will fail to reach our case. We have certainly done this: we
have killed competition in the linseed oil trade; but we submit that with
so many other interests and trades organized to protect themselves from
outside competition, and control the prices at which their products are
sold to the public, we were, in self-defence and for our own
preservation, obliged to take this step.[1]
[1] It should be explained that the above is not given as a bona-fide
statement of facts concerning this especial trust, but as a vivid
description of the organization and plans of a typical trust, from the
standpoint of its owners and managers.
Probably, too, few or no existing trusts have tried to benefit themselves
in so many different ways as we have supposed this imaginary trust to
have done. But to shorten our investigation, the author has purposely
extended the scope of this trust's action, to bring out clearly the variety
and importance of the methods by which a trust reaps profits, aside
from any advance in the price of its product.
If we omit the references to the especial trade, the above view of a trust
from the trust-makers' standpoint will do for almost any of the many
combinations which have been formed by different manufacturers for
the purpose of controlling production and prices. One thing is clearly
indicated in the above, and will certainly be conceded: That the men
who have formed these trusts are animated by the same motives as
those that govern humanity in general. They have, in some cases at
least, known what it was to be crowded close to the wall by severe
competition. They all at once saw a way opening by which they could
be freed from the worries and losses which had been making their
business one of small and uncertain profits, and would be set