They will destroy the mean competition which for centuries has made liars, swindlers and slavedrivers of men.
They will practically eliminate the great number of large private fortunes, and thus compel men to devote their energies to pursuits nobler than the accumulation of money.
At first a few enormous fortunes will dominate the nation—the beginning of these great fortunes you may see already.
Then will come the owning of the trusts—that is to say, of all the great national industries—by the nation itself.
The people of the land will own and operate their own necessities. These necessities, instead of making a few men enormously rich at the expense of many, will contribute to the comfort of many without injustice to the few. ——
The development of trusts must run its course, like every other great feature of human history.
Its beginning—in corrupt legislation, watered stocks, human selfishness—was inevitable.
Its ending—in national ownership, competition eliminated, and industrial life vastly improved—is also inevitable.
But thousands of struggles, thousands of economical battles, thousands of ruined men, will mark this evolution of human industry from the control of individual selfishness to the service of the nation.
The duty of the people is to study and, as far as possible, to foresee and regulate this enormous and inevitable development of the trusts.