a much smaller cost than a single manufacturer, and can
control the amount of the output of the goods, so that too great a supply
shall not be made at one time, and the markets be so flooded that the
price falls and it no longer pays to make them.

The idea of a number of persons clubbing together and helping each other
with their money and brains, and working together to produce an article at
the least possible cost, is of course a very excellent one.

It would seem as though these methods would help to make the articles that
we daily need much cheaper to us, and that the cost of living would be
less.

But unfortunately it is not always so.

While Trusts could and should work for the benefit of the people, they are
too often used as a means to harm them.

When Trusts get so large that they include nearly all the manufacturers of
a special article, they are not only able to produce the article at the
least possible cost, but to say for how much it shall be sold.

A Trust is formed that the manufacturers may make a better article at a
lower cost--at least, that is what the Trusts say; but the danger is that
they may obtain entire control of the market, create a monopoly, and
having the public at their mercy, make the prices as high as they please.

A monopoly is the sole power of dealing in any class of goods.

If there were no Trusts controlling the market, no one manufacturer would
dare to put his price too high, because another one would instantly step
in with lower prices, and take his trade away from him.

This would create what is called competition, because the first
manufacturer would not want to lose his trade, and would lower his prices
below the second manufacturer. Others would join in, and would continue to
cut prices, until the selling price of the article would be brought down
to the lowest possible rate at which it can be put on the market.

The public would get the benefit of this competition, and would find the
cost of living less.

This competition is the soul of business, because it obliges manufacturers
to better the quality of their goods and machinery in order to sell at
all; but Trusts do not care to do this, and therefore desire to put a stop
to it entirely.

Each Trust has its system of controlling the store-keepers who deal
directly with the public, and it makes them agree to sell at such prices
as it thinks best.

In this way the prices are kept up, no matter how much they ought