What's What in America

by Eugene V. Brewster

THE GREAT QUESTION.

If then we are not to destroy the Trust, and if we are not to adopt the government ownership idea, and if the Trust cannot safely be let alone because of the injuries it is now working, and because of the still greater injuries which it threatens to inflict upon society in the future, what shall be done with it? What can be done with this unmanageable monster to destroy its faults and yet not spoil its virtues? How can we conquer the giant without slaying him?

LOCALIZATION.

One more phase of the question requires consideration before proceeding with conclusions. In Gloversville, N. Y., and near vicinity, about three-quarters of the inhabitants are engaged in the glove industry, and in Troy, N. Y., the same conditions obtain as to collars and cuffs. All over the country, we find the inhabitants of certain localities devoted almost exclusively to one industry, such as pork-packing, manufacturing, fishing, and mining, and even in our cities we find certain sections devoted exclusively to banking, shipping, shopping, dry-goods, manufacture, and commission brokerage. The people of a certain town, having for generations devoted themselves exclusively to the manufacture of say, bricks, have become proficient and expert in that industry. They have invented or obtained control of the best machinery, they have trained their children from infancy to become proficient in the industry, and they have ever been alert to seize upon the best and newest ideas that always come to those who devote their lives and fortunes to the perfection of any one thing. Besides, natural advantages such as water power, accessibility to navigable streams, climatic or geological conditions, and geographical situation often attract and confine the people of a locality to one industry. Racial limitations and advantages also determine to some extent what calling a man shall follow. The thick-skulled negro would not be a success in the icy regions of Alaska, and the oily Esquimo would be a failure in the cotton fields of the South. Again, nature has adapted certain regions to the growing of cotton, or tobacco, or fruits, and in others it has deposited vast quantities of coal, or iron, or oil.

These, in brief, are some of the facts which render irresistible the conclusion that localization of industries and specialization of men is the natural and inevitable condition of the future.

Now, if every locality shall in the future have its specialty and other localities will not compete with it, as we have shown they often cannot, then locality monopolizes that specialty.

Thus the people of Gloversville will probably obtain a monopoly of the glove industry, likewise the people of Troy of the collar and cuff industry, the people of Wilkes-Barre of the coal industry, and the people of Omaha, Kansas City or Chicago, of the meat-packing industry, and the people of Haverstraw of the brick industry—not only because of their training and experience, but because of natural adaptation, or of geological or geographical advantages.

Here, then, are natural monopolies at many points, and we may as well legislate to stop the tides from rising and falling as to resist this natural economic movement. While not necessarily a Trust, it partakes of the nature of the Trust in effect, and it may properly be classed with the Trust for all present purposes.

Thus, monopoly results from two known causes: the operation of the laws of co-operation, and the operation of the laws of localization and specialization.

INTERDEPENDENCE OF MEN