to condemn all corporations because some are bad, or even to be unduly
suspicious of all, because some are bad. But the corporation in form
and character has come to stay--that is a thing that may be depended
upon. Even small firms are becoming corporations, because it is a
convenient form of partnership.

It is equally true that combinations of capital are bound to continue
and to grow, and this need not alarm even the most timid if the
corporation, or the series of corporations, is properly conducted with
due regard for the rights of others. The day of individual competition
in large affairs is past and gone--you might just as well argue that
we should go back to hand labour and throw away our efficient
machines--and the sober good sense of the people will accept this fact
when they have studied and tried it out. Just see how the list of
stockholders in the great corporations is increasing by leaps and
bounds. This means that all these people are becoming partners in
great businesses. It is a good thing--it will bring a feeling of
increased responsibility to the managers of the corporations and will
make the people who have their interests involved study the facts
impartially before condemning or attacking them.

On this subject of industrial combinations I have often expressed my
opinions; and, as I have not changed my mind, I am not averse to
repeating them now, especially as the subject seems again to be so
much in the public eye.

The chief advantages from industrial combinations are those which can
be derived from a coöperation of persons and aggregation of capital.
Much that one man cannot do alone two can do together, and once admit
the fact that coöperation, or, what is the same thing, combination, is