oducer entirely at the
mercy of a single carrier, who regulates his rates so as to secure his
maximum profit. Indeed, so fast is the amalgamation of railway capital
proceeding that even between large cities there is little genuine
competition. The same is true of the telegraph and the supply of such
things as water and gas, which, by reason of their relation to land,
and the power thus conferred upon the owner of the first and most
convenient means of supply, are "natural" monopolies. Where such
industries are left, as in most cities of America, to private
enterprise, they form the objects of a monopoly which is commonly so
strong as to crush with ease attempts at competition where such are
legally permissible. Jay Gould's Western Union Telegraph Company is an
example of an absolute monopoly maintained for many years without the
possibility of effective competition. The purchase of Western lands in
order to hold them for monopoly prices has been a favoured form of
syndicate investment during the last forty years.

(2) Articles which for economy of transport and distribution require
to be massed together in large quantities are specially amenable to
monopoly. Grains produced over a wide area have often to be collected
in large quantities to be re-assorted according to quality, and to be
warehoused before being placed in the market. So the produce of
thousands of competing farmers passes into the hands of a syndicate of
owners of grain elevators at Chicago or elsewhere. The same is true of
meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, dairy produce. All these things, raised
under circumstances which render effective co-operation for purposes
of sale well-nigh impossible, flow from innumerable diverse places
into a common centre, where they fall into the hands of a small group
of middlemen, merchants, and exporters. Even the retail merchants, as
we have seen, are able to make effective combinations to maintain
prices in the case of more perishable goods.

In England the combination of retail merchants commonly takes the form
of a trade regulation of prices restricting competition. But in the
United States regular Trusts have been in some cases established in
retail trade. The Legislative Committee of New York State, in its
investigations, discovered a milk trust which had control of the
retail distribution in New York City, fixing a price of three cents
per quart to be paid to the farmer, and a selling price of seven or
eight cents for