The main object of the Trust
seems to be to combine several companies under one direction,
so as to economize expenses, regulate production and the price of commodities
by destroying competition. Its advocates declare their policy to be
productive of good to the world, inasmuch as it secures regular supplies
of commodities of the best kind at fair and reasonable prices.
On the other hand, its opponents contend that Trusts are injurious to
the real interests of the public, as small companies cannot compete with them,
and without healthy competition the consumer always suffers.
Where experts differ it were perhaps wiser for me not to express an opinion
lest I should show no more wisdom than the boy who argued
that lobsters were black and not red because he had often seen them
swimming about on the seashore, but was confuted by his friend
who said he knew they were red and not black for he had seen them
on his father's dinner table.
The fact, however, which remains indisputable, is the immense power of wealth.
No one boycotts money. It is something no one seems to get enough of.
I have never heard that multi-millionaires like Carnegie or Rockefeller
ever expressed regrets at not being poor, even though they seem more eager
to give money away than to make it. Most people in America are desirous
for money, and rush every day to their business with no other thought
than to accumulate it quickly. Their love of money leaves them scarcely time
to eat, to drink, or to sleep; waking or sleeping they think of nothing else.
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