The Trusts What can we Do with Them? What can they Do for Us? BY William Miller Collier New York State Civil Service Commissioner; Author PREFACE THE problem of the trusts is a momentous one, and yet it is unqualifiedly a new problem. The oldest of them (the Standard Oil Company) is eighteen years of age, but the great majority of these gigantic combinations have been established since 1897. Furthermore, those of most recent creation seem animated by somewhat different purposes than their prototype; and they present new problems or new phases of old problems. There cannot be any doubt that the trusts are filled with great dangers to our industrial, social, and political system. To say that these dangers are "awful" is no misuse of the word. The great advantages of mammoth business organizations should not be overlooked. Such organizations are necessities in the present condition of American industries. They seem to be the only effective agencies whereby we can develop our much needed foreign markets, whereby we can dispose of our surplus products, and thus give constant employment to our workers and toilers. Much of our anti-trust legislation has overlooked this fact. There is, indeed, a danger that in our attempts to stop monopolies we may cripple our productive energies and stifle enterprise and bring our country into a condition of industrial degradation and into bankruptcy. To obtain, however, the most that can be obtained from trusts, to achieve the highest degree of success that can come from the use of trusts, it is absolutely necessary that we guard against their becom 82816 iii |