PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

CHICAGO CONFERENCE ON TRUSTS.

The conference on "Trusts," called by the Civic Federation, was called to order in Central Music Hall, Chicago, at 10:45 o'clock Wednesday morning, September 13, 1899, by President Franklin H. Head, who stated the objects of the conference as follows:

FRANKLIN H. HEAD.

President The Civic Federation of Chicago.

The Civic Federation of Chicago is a non-partisan organization, embracing in its membership, supporters and well wishers, a goodly proportion of the active business and professional men of our city; of the men who in their several ways have helped to win for our city its position as a metropolitan capital. Some months since it realized that no topic seemed so widely discussed as what was designated by the general title of "Trusts"-and that, too, upon no current topic was there so widespread and general an ignorance and confusion of ideas. There seemed to us a crying need for education upon the subject; of an education which would show the broad distinction between the various trade combinations and trusts, and to promote such education this conference is now in session.

It is not a trust or an anti-trust conference, but a conference in search of truth and light. With this end in view the attendance has been solicited of men of every shade of opinion upon the general subject; from the men who regard trusts and trade combinations as the standing menace to our national prosperity, and even to the perpetuity of our system of government, to those who feel that trade combinations and large aggregations of active

capital are simply a natural evolution in the development of our industrial and commercial life, and that such aggregations are absolutely necessary to enable us to compete with the vast accumulations and experience of the older nations, and their almost total control outside of food products, of the markets of the world. We are also to hear from those holding views between either extreme; those who believe in the value of combinations properly organized, but who recognize in the reckless and excessive capitalization of many of such combinations a peril leading to widespread panic and distress from such inflated stocks being absorbed by the small investors, whose savings may be thus in great measure lost.

We hope to hear the general subject discussed from all possible standpoints-from the view not only of the organizers of the combinations, but also from the workmen and customers of the industrial corporations. We hope that light will be thrown upon the difference between the class of trusts which tend to monopolies and the industrial combinations which in many cases seem to be to the advantage of all.

We are now in a period of a large advance in the prices of most classes of manufactured goods, especially in iron and steel products, and we hope that some of our speakers will illustrate how much of this advance is due to combinations, and how much to the vastly increased demand, which in all lines has always in the past resulted in advanced prices under the immutable law of supply and demand. There has been no trust or combination, for instance, among our farmers, but we all recollect how two years ago the short wheat crop abroad caused such an increased demand as to legitimately advance the price of that staple over 50 per cent within a period of four months, and that later an enormous demand for wheat from one of our own citizens, Mr. Joseph Leiter, whose hunger for wheat gave him a world-wide reputation, caused an advance of another 50 per cent.

The very general response to our invitations to this conference, from the governors of nearly all the states, who have appointed as delegates their most eminent citizens-from the great commercial bodies, the universities and the labor, agricultural, and other organizations which have sent their ablest men and most profound students of economic problems-this response has been gratifying beyond measure, and illustrates the abiding interest everywhere felt in the general subject and its impartial discussion. This response also fills us with hope as to the great advantages which will result from the full discussion of all phases of the most vital topic of the day.

We trust that this discussion may be able, scholarly and dignified, as becomes the subjects and the occasion, and that when these discussions reach their proper audience the millions of people in every town and hamlet who from the newspapers receive the reports of your deliberations, it may lead to such action tend to preserve in our trade combinations all which is of value, as well as to point out methods by which the evils of such combinations may be avoided or done away.

as

may

The Civic Federation recognizes also that with the assembling of the delegates to this conference and its brief preliminary exercises, its participation in your proceedings is at an end. You will, gentlemen, make your own program and plans-at the same time I wish to tender to you on the part of the Federation, with its best wishes, the services of any of its committees, officers or members, whenever such services can in any way facilitate your work.

EDWARD C. AKIN.

Attorney-General of Illinois.

Representing Governor John R. Tanner, Attorney-General Akin, on behalf of the State of Illinois, welcomed the delegates to the convention. Mr. Akin said:

The pleasure of addressing you on this occasion is as gratifying as it is unexpected, and the fact that the substitutions were announced long before either Governor Tanner or myself knew of any such purpose, is but a deserved compliment to the energy and prophetic power of the average Chicago newspaper reporter.

Owing to the serious illness of Governor Tanner, which alone prevents his presence here to-day, the privilege of welcoming you on this occasion has been generously accorded to me. The casual stranger, who comes without evil intent, is entitled to passive welcome as a matter of mere courtesy, but to you a most generous welcome is due, because many of you occupy positions of high trust and importance in the various states you represent, because among you are the leading minds of the great world of letters and of science. You are entitled to welcome, not alone because of these, but because of the objects and the purposes that have brought you together. The chief end of government is the accomplishment of the greatest good to the greatest number. Whether that great evolution of modern trade and commerce, commonly known as the trust, is to prove of benefit

or injury to the masses of our people, and if of benefit, how it may safely be promoted, and if of injury, what the remedy shall be, how and by what authority applied, are questions that lie close to the well-being and happiness of our people, and in which they are to-day above all other matters vitally interested.

The personnel of this conference is guarantee that these great questions will not only be ably discussed, but along educational, conservative lines, which are the underlying principles of this conference, and it is because of the courtesy ordinarily due to strangers within our gates, and is due also because of high considerations of personal regard; it is because of the prominence which you have attained in the public estimation; it is because of the purposes and objects that have brought you together; and it is because we believe that as a result of this conference our people will have a better and a wider knowledge of these great questions, and that here will be sown the seed which shall blossom into legislation, if legislation be needed, at once wise and conservative, having in view alike the interests of capital and of labor, of the consumer and the producer.

It is because of all these that on behalf of the great state of Illinois and on behalf of its governor, I extend to you a hearty and cordial welcome.

HOWARD S. TAYLOR.

Prosecuting Attorney, City of Chicago.

On behalf of the City of Chicago, and speaking for Mayor Carter H. Harrison, City Prosecutor Howard S. Taylor extended a welcome to the delegates to the city, saying:

I am requested by His Honor, the Mayor, now absent from the city, to be present on this occasion and in his name to bid you a most hearty welcome to Chicago, with the assurance that this great city, whose motto is "I Will," shrinks from no problem, but with the characteristic intelligence and liberality that from old Fort Dearborn till now has always distinguished her welcomes into her forum with perfect confidence every free utterance and inquiry that may give inspiration and wisdom to the great republic of which we are a constituent part. Chicago, through all her history, has believed that there is more danger in suppressing truth than in publishing falsehood; and, therefore, she clings to the old doctrine of free and full speech on every question of public interest.

The matter that has brought you together is of prime importance to Chicago and to the whole country. We are a nation of wealth producers and distributors. We can fight if need be from Washington down to Miles, from John Paul Jones to Admiral Dewey, we have no apologies to make for our conduct on land or sea. We have also contributed our full quota to the world's treasury of literature and art; but, after all, Providence and the genius of our people have, in the main, led us in the ways of peace and production. To challenge nature, to wring from her strongholds the material gains that shall make us a people of happy homes and hopeful hearts, has been the history of our honorable past and the prophecy of our growing future. Whatever, therefore, touches the question of wealth production and distribution touches the center of our civilization and invites from all our people such counsel and action as shall secure for us and our posterity the greatest possible good-that benevolent reign of peaceful industry that shall

"-Scatter plenty o'er a smiling land

And read its history in a nation's eyes."

That the subject which you are to discuss is one both of eminence and imminence is proven not only by your presence here, but by the wide discussion which is now going on in the magazines and newspapers and in every other place where public opinion is created or expressed. Gentlemen may differ in their opinions concerning the nature of trusts, their cause and cure; but there is no questioning the fact that a new and portentous phenomenon has risen above the horizon of our national life, and one of such grave import as to justify the fullest, fairest study that this convention can command.

His Honor, Mayor Harrison, has his views upon this subject— clear and pronounced; but he entertains them as an American citizen, and will not take advantage of his official position to promulgate them. As chief magistrate of the city, he does not desire to bias nor anticipate your conclusions; but, confident always in truth as an end and free speech as a means, he approves your convention and bids you, through me, a most cordial welcome to Chicago.

Attorney-General T. S. Smith, of Texas, moved that Franklin H. Head and Ralph M. Easley, respectively president and secretary of the Civic Federation of Chicago, be made the temporary officers of the conference, and that the Civic Federation be