Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/73

 THE TRUST PROBLEM RESTUDIED 6 1

a laissez-faire policy toward corporations enjoying special fran- chises or privileges. Increased regulation and strict supervision, including the fixing of rates at certain intervals, will undoubtedly be the early outcome of the present tendencies in the sphere of public utilities. But how are the "capitalistic trusts and combi- nations " to be treated ? What is to supersede the legislation that has proved so ineffective ? The United States Steel Corporation has not been attacked under the anti-trust law of any state within which it operates. It is not a trust in the technical sense of the word ; it is a corporation of corporations, and is organized under the laws of New Jersey. The meat- packing companies, harassed by the federal government, might secure immunity and freedom of action by organizing a similar corporation. Legally that would alter the situation materially ; economically there would be no improvement. The people would continue to demand protection against the misuse of monopolistic power, and what would the state and national gov- ernments do to meet that demand ?

Nothing, it is boldly said in certain quarters. For the first time since the rise of industrial combinations, the repeal of all anti-trust laws of the negative sort is now openly recommended. The fact is of peculiar significance. In political platforms and stump or convention speeches the declarations against trusts are as uncompromising as ever, and no public man has yet ventured to suggest the repeal or liberalization of the anti-monopoly laws. On the contrary, the politicians are advocating more rigid regu- lation of combinations. A Republican House of Representatives passed a radical bill vesting in Congress power to regulate trusts, and between Mr. W. J. Bryan's position on the trust question and that taken in President Roosevelt's first message to Congress in relation to the same subject there is no perceptible difference. Nevertheless the sentiment for a laissez-faire policy is no negligible quantity, and before long it will be necessary to reckon with it.

We have the following situation with reference to trusts : Some favor non-interference, the reversal of the policy of cen- turies, the repeal of all anti-monopoly laws and of 'the common