in large corporations,
partly for greater economy, partly for an increase of profits through
manipulating reorganization of stock companies, and partly for
centralization of control. In the process, while the cost of certain
products has been reduced by economy in operating expenses, the
enormous dividend requirements of heavily capitalized corporations has
necessitated high prices, a large business, and the danger of
overproduction, and a virtual monopoly has made it possible to lift
prices to a level that pinches the consumer. By a grim irony of
circumstance, these giant and often ruthless corporations have taken
the name of trusts, but they do not incline to recognize that the
people's rights are in their trust. Not every trust is harmful to
society, and certainly trusts need not be destroyed. They have come
into existence by a natural economic process, and as far as they
cheapen the cost of production and improve the manufacture and
distribution of the product they are a social gain, but they need to
be controlled, and it is the function of government to regulate them
in the interests of society at large. It has been found by experience
that publicity of corporate business is one of the best methods of
control. In the long run every social organization must obtain the
sanction of public opinion if it is to become a recognized
institution, and in a democratic country like the United States no
trust can become so independent or monopolistic that it can afford to
disregard the public will and the public good, as certain American
corporations have discovered to their grief.

217. =The Chances of Progress.=--Every economic problem resolves
itself into a social problem. The satisfaction of human wants is the
province of the manufacturer, the merchant, and the transporter, but
it is not limited to any one or all of these, nor is society under
their control. The range of wants is so great, the desires of social
beings branch out into so many broad interests, that no one line of
enterprise or one group of men can control more than a small portion
of society. The whole is greater than any of its parts. There will be
groups that are unfortunate, communities and races that will suffer
temporarily in the process of social adjustment, but the welfare of
the many can never long be sacrificed to the selfishness of the few.
Social revolution in some form will take place. It may not be
accomplished in a day or a year, but the social