DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42346#0062
50
THE NEW COMPETITION
VIII
Cooperative associations, such as partnerships, corpora-
tions, trusts, are ordinarily formed to increase production,
to get larger results for the same outlay in time and money.
They are the logical, the inevitable outcome of old com-
petitive conditions.
When two men who are competitors see they can do
better, make more money, by working together, they form a
partnership. When more men see they can do better by
joining forces they form a corporation; when a number of
competing corporations see they can do better by consolidat-
ing they form a large corporation, a trust—all so many
steps toward securing larger results at lower costs.1
1 “Competition between rival producers and distributors—plain, old-
fashioned competition—tends to build up larger and larger enterprises,
and ultimately to leave only one, or at most, a few great producers in
the field. There are, indeed, exceptions to this rule—counter tendencies
■—but the proposition in the main is correct, and will rarely, if ever,
be questioned. * * * It is the rule rather than the exception that
trusts produce more cheaply than the individual producers whom they
displace, and therefore they can make the cost to the consumer less
than the individual competitors can. The cost of an article to the
consumer—its ordinary retail selling price—depends not only upon the
expense of making, but of marketing it. The great individual combi-
nations cheapen their product, not only by lessening the cost of making,
but infinitely more by saving expenses in marketing. * * * In the
struggle of competition it is always the weakest that is trodden under
foot, and it is generally the smallest that is the weakest. The process
is continuous and cumulative. The little goes down before the large,
and the large runs above and upon the little. This is not the result
of trusts. It is the result of competition. It is not the result of trusts,
but the cause of trusts. The underlying cause is the irresistible force
that has never yet ceased and probably never will—the demand for
cheap production. * * * Competition—the old-fashioned competition
that weeds out the weak and inefficient—gives battle, then, first to the
partnership, afterward the corporation, and in our day the gigantic cor-
poration. The story of economic progress, from the dawn of industry
until the present moment, is the record of the concentration of effort
and the combination of productive capital. Cooperation, concentration,
and combination—these are the results of competition.”—“The Trusts,”
by William M. Collier, Chapter III.
THE NEW COMPETITION
VIII
Cooperative associations, such as partnerships, corpora-
tions, trusts, are ordinarily formed to increase production,
to get larger results for the same outlay in time and money.
They are the logical, the inevitable outcome of old com-
petitive conditions.
When two men who are competitors see they can do
better, make more money, by working together, they form a
partnership. When more men see they can do better by
joining forces they form a corporation; when a number of
competing corporations see they can do better by consolidat-
ing they form a large corporation, a trust—all so many
steps toward securing larger results at lower costs.1
1 “Competition between rival producers and distributors—plain, old-
fashioned competition—tends to build up larger and larger enterprises,
and ultimately to leave only one, or at most, a few great producers in
the field. There are, indeed, exceptions to this rule—counter tendencies
■—but the proposition in the main is correct, and will rarely, if ever,
be questioned. * * * It is the rule rather than the exception that
trusts produce more cheaply than the individual producers whom they
displace, and therefore they can make the cost to the consumer less
than the individual competitors can. The cost of an article to the
consumer—its ordinary retail selling price—depends not only upon the
expense of making, but of marketing it. The great individual combi-
nations cheapen their product, not only by lessening the cost of making,
but infinitely more by saving expenses in marketing. * * * In the
struggle of competition it is always the weakest that is trodden under
foot, and it is generally the smallest that is the weakest. The process
is continuous and cumulative. The little goes down before the large,
and the large runs above and upon the little. This is not the result
of trusts. It is the result of competition. It is not the result of trusts,
but the cause of trusts. The underlying cause is the irresistible force
that has never yet ceased and probably never will—the demand for
cheap production. * * * Competition—the old-fashioned competition
that weeds out the weak and inefficient—gives battle, then, first to the
partnership, afterward the corporation, and in our day the gigantic cor-
poration. The story of economic progress, from the dawn of industry
until the present moment, is the record of the concentration of effort
and the combination of productive capital. Cooperation, concentration,
and combination—these are the results of competition.”—“The Trusts,”
by William M. Collier, Chapter III.