It may increase the respect of some readers for the conclusions I have reached, to know that it was a practical acquaintance with monopolies rather than any study of economic theories which led me to undertake the present work; that, at the time I undertook it, I was wholly undecided as to the proper remedies for monopolies, and was quite willing to believe, if the facts had proved it to me, that they were destined to work their own cure; and that the rapid growth and increase of monopolies in very many industries, in the few months since these chapters were written, have furnished fresh evidence that my conclusions have not been amiss.
Finally, I wish to place all emphasis on the fact that all the great movements toward genuine reform must go hand in hand. The cause of the people is one cause, and those who work for honest officers in our government, pure elections, the suppression of crime and pauperism, the mental and moral elevation of men and women, are striking harder blows at monopolies than they may realize. But if they desire to hasten the day of their success, they must bring the great masses of the people to comprehend that these movements aim at nothing less than their complete deliverance; and that the reformers who labor so earnestly to make our government purer and its people nobler, heartily desire also to cure the evils of monopoly, and to serve the cause of the people in its every form.
TRIBUNE BUILDING, New York City. June, 1889.
I. THE PROBLEM PRESENTED 1 A new use for the word "Trust," 1 The people's knowledge of trusts, 2 Remedies for trusts, 2, 3 Trusts a species of monopoly, 3 The problems which monopoly presents, 4 An impartial investigation necessary, 4 The question to be discussed from different standpoints, 5 A scientific method for solving the problem, 5.
II. TRUSTS AND MONOPOLIES IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES 7 Definition of a trust, 7 The first trusts and their successors, 8 Description of the organization of the linseed-oil trust by one of its founders, 9 The action of trust-makers perfectly natural, 14 Actual effect of trusts upon the public, 15 Profits of the linseed-oil trust, 16 Decreased market for goods controlled by trusts, 17 Control of the labor market by trusts, 17 The causes which have produced trusts, 18 Production on a large scale the most economical, 20 The Standard Oil Trust's defence of its work, 21 Its profits, and the cause of its low prices, 22 Industries in which trusts have been formed, 23 Andrew Carnegie's views of trusts, 24 The trust at once a benefit and a curse, 25.