Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/227

 ATTITUDE OF GOVERNMENT TOWARD TRUSTS 213

only through special privileges from railroads in the form of secret rebates. It is reasonable to believe that if there were no freight-rate discriminations, there could be no killing of com- petitors without making use of the economies resulting from combination, and thus at the same time giving the public the benefit of a low-priced commodity.

So long as there are economic benefits resulting from com- bination, that movement should not be checked merely because competition is apparently fettered, unless it be shown, not only that these benefits cannot be secured for the consumer, but that independent dangers accompany concentrated capital of such a nature as to necessitate its destruction. The Industrial Commis- sion, than which there is no higher authority in the United States, says, in its final report on " Industrial Combinations," * that the advantages of superior management, saving of cross-freight rates, and the introduction of improved methods in all the combined plants immediately must* always remain with the combination.

To the writer's mind, then, the present movement being a natural economic evolution, possessing benefits for society, and likewise apparent dangers, the real problem is to see if it is not possible to minimize, if not eliminate, the evils, at the same time retaining the advantage they present. President Roosevelt, in his speech at Milwaukee on April 3, mentioned above, presented the real problem when he said :

I think I speak for the great majority of the American people when I say that we are not in the least against wealth, as such, whether individual or corporate ; that we merely desire to see any abuse of corporate or combined wealth corrected and remedied; that we do not desire the abolition or destruction of big corporations ; but, on the contrary, recognize them as being in many cases efficient economic instruments, the result of an inevitable pro- cess of economic evolution ; and only desire to see them regulated and con- trolled so far as may be necessary to subserve the public good.

Accepting this, then, as a statement of the real problem with which we must deal, let us next consider what action has been taken to effect a solution.

The general character of legislation enacted by some thirty- seven states and territories of the Union has been truly "anti-

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