ive
prices on consumers, it must be observed that it is not necessarily to
its interest to do so. Every rise of price implies a fall off in
quantity sold; and it may therefore pay a Trust better to sell a large
quantity at a moderate profit than a smaller quantity at an enormous
profit. The exercise of the power possessed by the owners of a monopoly
depends upon the proportionate effect a rise of price will have upon the
sale. This again depends upon the nature and uses of the commodity in
which the Trust deals. In proportion as an article belongs to the
"necessaries" of life, a rise of price will have a small effect on the
purchase of it, as compared with the effect of a similar rise of price
on articles which belong to the "comforts" or "luxuries" of life, or
which may be readily replaced by some cheaper substitute. Thus it will
appear that the power of a Trust or monopoly of capital is liable to be
detrimental to the public interest--1st. In proportion as there is a
want of effective existing competition, and a difficulty of potential
competition. 2nd. In proportion as the commodity dealt in by the Trust
belongs to the necessaries of life.

Sec. 5. Steps in the Organization of labour.--The movements of labour show
an order closely correspondent with those of capital. As the units of
capital seek relief from the strain and waste of competition by uniting
into masses, and as the fiercer competition of these masses force them
into ever larger and closer aggregates, until they are enabled to obtain
partial or total relief from the competitive strife, so is it with
labour. The formation of individual units of labour-power into Trades
Unions, the amalgamation of these Unions on a larger scale and in closer
co-operation, are movements analogous to the concentration of small
units of capital traced above. It is not necessary to follow in detail
the concentrative process which is gradually welding labour into larger
units of competition. The uneven pace at which this process works in
different places and in various trades has prevented a clear recognition
of the law of the movement. The following steps, not always taken
however in precisely the same order, mark the progress--

1. Workers in the same trade in a town or locality form a "Union," or
limited co-operative society, the economic essence of which consists in
the fact that in regard to the price and other conditions of their
labour they act as a complex unit. Where su