They will practically eliminate the great number of large private
fortunes, and thus compel men to devote their energies to
pursuits nobler than the accumulation of money.
At first a few enormous fortunes will dominate the nation--the
beginning of these great fortunes you may see already.
Then will come the owning of the trusts--that is to say, of all
the great national industries--by the nation itself.
The people of the land will own and operate their own
necessities. These necessities, instead of making a few men
enormously rich at the expense of many, will contribute to the
comfort of many without injustice to the few. ----
The development of trusts must run its course, like every other
great feature of human history.
Its beginning--in corrupt legislation, watered stocks, human
selfishness--was inevitable.
Its ending--in national ownership, competition eliminated, and
industrial life vastly improved--is also inevitable.
But thousands of struggles, thousands of economical battles,
thousands of ruined men, will mark this evolution of human
industry from the control of individual selfishness to the
service of the nation.
The duty of the people is to study and, as far as possible, to
foresee and regulate this enormous and inevitable development of
the trusts.
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