oyers'
Association," active in 1878, and their general federations, such as
the "National Federation of Associated Employers of Labor," which was
formed in 1873, and included prominent shipbuilders, textile
manufacturers, engineers, iron manufacturers, and builders. Many of
these organizations, especially the national or district organizations
of the employers in single trades, exist for other and more general
purposes, but incidentally the representatives of the masters'
associations regularly arrange wages and other labor conditions with
the representatives of the workingmen's associations. There is,
therefore, in these cases no more competition among employers as to
what wages they shall pay than among the workmen as to what wages they
shall receive. In both cases it is a matter of arrangement between the
two associations, each representing its own membership. The liberty
both of the individual manufacturer and of the workman ceases in this
respect when he joins his association.

*84. Trusts and Trade Combinations.*--But the competition among the
great producers, traders, transportation companies, and other
industrial leaders has been diminished in recent times in other ways
than in their relation to their employees. In manufacturing, mining,
and many wholesale trades, employers' associations have held annual or
more frequent meetings at which agreements have been made as to
prices, amount of production, terms of sale, length of credit, and
other such matters. In some cases formal combinations have been made
of all the operators in one trade, with provisions for enforcing trade
agreements. In such a case all competition comes to an end in that
particular trade, so far as the subjects of agreement extend. The
culminating stage in this development has been the formation of
"trusts," by which the stock of all or practically all the producers
in some one line is thrown together, and a company formed with regular
officers or a board of management controlling the whole trade. An
instance of this is the National Telephone Company, already referred
to. In all these fields unrestricted competition has been tried and
found wanting, and has been given up by those most concerned, in favor
of action which is collective or previously agreed upon. In the field
of transportation, boards of railway presidents or other combinations
have been formed, by which rates of fares and freight rates have been
established, "pooling" or the