, of course, very vaguely used, being generally taken, quite
apart from its proper significance, to mean any form of combination,
corporate aggregation, or working agreement which tends to extend
control of a company or individual, or group of companies or
individuals, over a larger proportion of a particular trade or industry.
In the United States, with the possible exception of the Standard Oil
Company (which is not properly a trust), the form of corporate power
against which there has been the most bitterness is that of the
railways, and the specific form of railway organisation most fiercely
attacked has been the Pool or Joint Purse--which is, in all essentials,
a true trust. In 1887 the formation of a Pool, or Joint Purse Agreement,
was made illegal in the United States; but Englishmen can have no
conception of the popular hatred of the word "Pools" which exists in
America or of the obloquy which has been heaped upon railway companies
for entering into them. Few Englishmen on the other hand have any clear
idea of what a Joint Purse Agreement is; and they jog along contentedly
ignorant that this iniquitous engine for their oppression is in daily
use by the British railway companies.

My personal belief is that the prohibition of pools in America was a
mistake: that it would have been better for the country from the first
to have authorised, even encouraged, their formation, as in England,
under efficient governmental supervision. But the point is that the
majority of the American people thought otherwise and no other
manifestation of the trust-tendency has been more virulently attacked
than the--to English ideas--harmless institution of a joint purse. And
whether the American people ultimately acted wisely or unwisely, they
were justified in regarding any form of association or agreement between
railways with more apprehension than would be reasonable in England. It
is not possible here to explain why this is so, except to say broadly
that the longer distances in America and the lack of other forms of
transportation render an American community, especially in the West,
more dependent upon the railway than is the case in England. The
conditions give the railway company a larger control over, or influence
in, the well-being of the people.

An excellent illustration of the difference in the point of view of the
two peoples has been furnished since the above was written by the
announcements, within a few weeks of each