236 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
in the future, the trusts have not, on the whole, thus far raised prices. The possible danger in this direction, of which I shall speak later, undoubtedly has much to do with popular opposi- tion, and justifies precautionary measures ; but in the main the chief promoters of anti-trust legislation have been those who have been displaced or injured by the improved methods of pro- duction introduced by the trust. While public sympathy may justly be expressed for these unfortunates, even taking the shape of pensions — no more justly, however, than for workmen dis- placed by improved machinery — every argument against the trust put forward by this class is testimony to its value as a labor-saving machine. For example, the president of the Com- mercial Travelers' Association testifies before the Industrial Commission that, because of the concentration of business in the hands of a few great producers, 35,000 salesmen have been thrown out of employment, and 25,000 more have suffered a reduction of salary. He estimates that the annual loss to sales- men is S6o,ooo,ooo, to the hotels 828,000,000, and to the rail- ways S27,000,000. Allowing for exaggeration, the salesmen, hotels, and railways are doubtless learning how the hand-weavers and spinners felt when the spinning-jenny and the power-loom were invented ; but society is as little likely to set aside the new improvement — unless the trust is getting all the benefits. The following serious words from a funny writer' sum up the situa- tion admirably : " Two factors, and two only, have operated to this end [cheapened comforts and raised wages]: labor-saving machinery and organization. The former was the first to be felt. And you have always fought it. Away back, when some- one first learned to make a bronze hatchet, you fought him because his invention threw thousands of honest stone-hatchet makers out of work. And you said the invention was no good, anyway : that a man could brain his neighbor just as handily with a good, honest stone hatchet as with one of those new- fangled things. But the engine came on. You have been butt- ing it ever since. Some of you can still remember how you fought steam-power It would ruin the freighters and
^ Puck, editorial entitled "Butting the Engine," June 7, 1899.
