I.
Percentages and numbers of families in the United States in 1890, under owned and rented homes and farms, were represented by Dr. C. B. Spahr as follows:
| Owned: | Percent. | Numbers. | Rented | Percent. | Numbers. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In cities above 100,000 population: Homes owned | 22.83 | 444,879 | Rented: | 77.17 | 1,503,955 |
| In cities from 8,000 to 100,000: Homes owned | 35.96 | 629,092 | Rented: | 64.04 | 1,120,487 |
| Outside such cities: Homes owned | 43.78 | 1,849,700 | Rented: | 56.22 | 2,374,860 |
| Farms owned | 65.92 | 3,142,746 | Rented: | 34.08 | 1,624,433 |
| Totals and averages (for all) owned[[178]] | 47.80 | *6,066,417 | Rented: | 52.20 | 6,623,735 |
[178]. As we have seen on p. 116 that 1,696,670 families out of the total of the owning ones* in 1890, were in debt, having their properties under mortgage. And only 4,369,747 families out of 12,690,152 in the United States were free owners of wealth. Compare the above totals with statistical averages on p. 79. See Dr. Spahr’s “Present Distribution of Wealth in the United States,” 1896, p. 53.
II.
DEFINITIONS OF TRUSTS AND MONOPOLIES.
“A trust,” as defined by a committee of the New York State Legislature, “is a combination” aiming “to destroy competition and to restrain trade through the stockholders therein combining with other corporations of stockholders to form a joint stock company of corporations, in effect renouncing the powers of such several corporations, and placing all powers in the hands of trustees.” The general purposes and effects among them are “to control the supply of commodities and necessities; to destroy the very possibility of competition; to regulate the quality of all commodities; and to keep the cost to the consumer at prices far beyond their fair and equitable value.”[[179]] Further, “Trust is” an acting scheme “where, by a device of trusteeship, various corporations practically form one monopoly without losing their separate corporateness. The novel characteristic of such a trust is not in its being a monopoly, but the way in which the monopoly is attained.”[[179]]
Mr. Charles W. Baker in his Monopolies and the People, says:
“A trust is a combination to restrain competition among producers, formed by placing the various producing properties (mills, factories, etc.) in the hands of a board of trustees, who are empowered to direct the operations of production and sale, as if the properties were all under a single ownership and management.”[[180]]