The Slavery of Progress; Its Causes and Its Cure (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910. Excerpt: ... The Slavery of progress: Its Causes ancf' Cure A I HOW TRUSTS ARE BUILT We See the large oak towering above its fellows. If we investigate, we will find that it owes its origin to a germ of life incased in a little acorn which one might easily carry in his vest pocket. This germ developed and the oak began its growth according to the laws of its bemgWe see the immense aggregations of capital which we call trusts, standing like giamsiAmong the less important corporations, engager in similar activities reaching in every direction, grasping every aVenue of effort, crowding out weaker concerns, andgrowing more powerful every day. If we?orfly pgo back and examine the beginnings, wepilrfihd that the germs of these great growths were called into existence when the.profit system was first inaugurated. WeAwji-nnd, too, that every business conducted for profit, however small, has the trust germ in it, and therefore, so far as the principle is concerned, the smallest corporation and the largest are absolutely identical, just as the little sprout, first peeping through the hull of the acorn, is as much an oak as the spreading tree--the difference between them being one of degree of development, not of kind. It will be observed that all sprouts from acorns do not develop into great trees. Those which happen to get the start crowd out and finally destroy the weaker, with the result that we find the fewest small trees where we find the largest. It is just the same with trusts. As they increase in size they overshadow and destroy the smaller businesses by a process of elimination. Figuratively speaking, they feed upon their weaker brethren. The business units increase in size and decrease in number, rendering necessary increasingly large amounts of capital and making po...