Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/254

 240 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

capitalization of many huge combinations has been water. The manipulation of this stock, not the carrying on of the industry, is the main interest of the promoters. Their fortunes are made before the capital stock is squeezed ; after that time the real investors may make the best of what is left, or, perhaps, be forced to submit to a "reorganization." These operations, besides being dishonest, unsettle values, temporarily increase the cost of production, and subject labor to the possibility of the collapse of the industry in which it is employed. Evidently, the great prizes are for the most unscrupulous and those least concerned in the industry involved, whereas the advantages should fall to the largest possible number of honest investors, and preferably to those who are connected most directly with the processes of production. Mr. Hewitt, in the statement from which quotation has already been made, said: "My own view is that, when industry has been sufficiently centralized and the ownership widely diffused through the distribution of shares, the workman will gradually acquire these shares and control the property which they represent. In fact, I dannot see any other outcome for the present movement toward the consolidation of industrial enterprises than the transfer of the control to those who are actually engaged in the work of operation." Whether this expectation is Utopian or not, and without reference to this particular outcome, the stability of business, the gains from large accumulations of capital, and the interests of the honest investor, all depend upon some kind of public regulation of great industrial corporations.

The more prominent evil — the exploiting of the consuming public because of monopoly advantages — is none the less real because it is not so great as is popularly supposed. It is undoubtedly true that most of the commodities produced by the trusts are sold for less than they could ever be obtained for under the old system. Even if the monopoly becomes absolute — which has probably never yet been the case — it still feels the regulating force of competition. In the first place, if the price rises above a certain point, competitors will surely spring up again to drag it down. The old competitors were driven from