porations are in fact a necessity under presentday conditions. Private individuals could not, if working independently, supply the markets of the world, or, if they could, the cost of production would be greater per article than when great corporations carry on the same enterprise on a mammoth scale.

§ 146. ABUSE OF POWER BY TRUSTS.

We need not be told that trusts are inclined to abuse their power. It is painfully apparent that great corporations are not conducted as philanthropies. So soon as one corporation or a limited number of corporations gets to the point where a control of the market is possible, a rise of prices results. If the beef trust can force up the price of meats several cents a pound in defiance of a nation-wide protest, it is time to consider calmly what is to be done to curb its powers and to prevent other trusts from doing the same thing with other necessaries of life.

THE INDEPENDENT DEALER A CHECK UPON THE

TRUSTS

It is obvious that independent producers and dealers existing in any considerable numbers hold in check the rapacity of predatory trusts. Until a trust can secure an effective control of the market, that is, attain a virtual monopoly, it cannot force up prices beyond a legitimate level.

THE TRUSTS SUPPLANTING INDEPENDENT OPERATORS

But the trusts are continually fighting the independent companies and, in nearly all fields, are accomplishing a steady progress of elimination. If this progress is to continue, all the business of the country will eventually be consolidated in the hands of a few powerful combinations of trade. The evils that such a situation of affairs would usher in we have already had samples of in the conduct of the beef trust and a few others.

§ 147. NATIONAL WELFARE DEMANDS A STRENGTHENING OF THE HANDS OF INDEPENDENT DEALER.

It becomes, therefore, a matter of national concern that the hands of the independent dealer be strengthened. The trusts have been created and rendered powerful through the efforts of able lawyers in the employ of capitalists. Lawyers are always, sooner or later, found arrayed on each side of a controversy. May we not expect to find them, even more effectively than at present, arrayed on the side of the independent dealers? Let us see of what nature is to be the services rendered.

$148. BUSINESS PROBLEMS.

The new man or corporation entering into business at the present time must begin with small capital as compared with the trusts. His establishment must necessarily be modest, and from the outset he must fight for business in competition with powerful adversaries. The public has a way of waiting for a new man to make good before lending him any degree of approval. While the public is looking on ready to say "I told you so,' the trusts, by devious methods, usually force the newcomer into the pit of financial ruin and turn their attention to the next comer.

In order for a small enterprise to make head against powerful adversaries, it must be conducted scientifically. Every contract that is made must be legally binding. The Statute of Frauds requires certain contracts to be in writing; the statute concerning sales of personal property must be satisfied if it is a contract falling within its provisions; the law of negotiable instruments is intricate and technical. Thus it is that there are many ways in which the business man may meet with a business loss through an imperfect knowledge of law. A few losses may cancel his profits and result in business ruin.

Aside from danger from his own mistakes, there are causes that may lead to his ruin, however well managed his own business may be. If the trans

portation companies, by rebates or other means that are iniquitous, transport merchandise very much cheaper for his powerful rival than it will for him, the rival can undersell him and thus encompass his ruin.

Still other difficulties in the way of the independent dealer arise from ill-advised legislation. The State legislatures and the Federal Congress are every year piling up new laws and new restrictions upon business. A law is enacted to curb the powers of the trusts, and, lo, we find that the trust lawyers devise a way to circumvent the law, and the trusts go on their way as before, while the smaller concerns, that are doing a legitimate business, are caught in the web. They are forced to the wall, and the trusts quietly extend their sway over the newly relinquished territory. Thus it is that ill-advised legislation, or legislation that is enacted under compulsion, but with deliberately planned defects, results in disaster to the small concern and secret joy to those who have been denominated by our valiant Ex-President as "malefactors of great wealth."

Every business failure, through the downfall of a small concern, results in economic loss to the nation. The accumulation of such losses in the United States amounts to an appalling total every year. A more efficient business man is needed.

§ 149. LAWYERS NEEDED IN BUSINESS.

The business man of to-day needs to be able to make legally binding contracts. In order to protect his business from unjust discrimination in favor of a business rival, he should be thoroughly familiar with his legal rights and the methods to pursue in protecting them. He should be so familiar with the law and its administrations in court that he can decide wisely upon the merits or demerits of legislation that is introduced ostensibly for his benefit.

The time has passed when the business man can go on his way in serene ignorance of the law and simply call in a lawyer when he gets into trouble. Every act of the business man who would succeed in future competition with the trusts must be decided upon with a full understanding of the law and of the legal significance of the act. He must himself possess a technical knowledge of law gained in the same way that the lawyer gains it, by years of study, or he must employ a lawyer to superintend the legal phases of the business. It would seem a reasonable conclusion that the lawyer is to assume an increasingly important part in the future development of the country.