DBQ - Business Trusts

DOCUMENT A

I say that you ought to get rich, and it is you duty to get rich. How many of my pious brethren say to me, "Do you, a Christian minister, spend your time going up and down the country advising young people to get rich, to get money?" " Yes, of course I do." They say , "Isn't it awful ! why don't you preach the gospel instead of preaching about making money?" " Because to make money honestly is to preach the gospel." the men who get rich may be the most honest men you find in the community....

.... ninety-eight out of a hundred of the rich men in America are honest. That is why they are rich.

Source: Acres of Diamonds by Russell H. Conwell, 1900.

DOCUMENT B

Liberty produces wealth, and wealth destroys liberty... What we call monopoly is business at the end of its journey. The concentration of wealth, the wiping out of the middle classes are the other names for it. To get it is, the world of affairs, the chief end of man.

Source: Wealth Against Commonwealth by Henry Demarest Lloyd, 1894.

DOCUMENT C

The businessmen of this country are as patriotic as any other class of men, and their widespread opposition to the prosecutions under the Sherman Act is not based upon selfishness and greed as seems to be generally supposed. They feel that the situation demands "more statesmanship and fewer lawsuits."... it is a not question of changing the Sherman Act; it is not a question of the Sherman Act being unjust. We need something like the Sherman act... it bears the aspect of unfairness to prosecute these large corporations which were formed under the Sherman Act, which corporations are perfectly willing to disintegrate and reorganize according to any legal method that might be defined.

Source: Report of the Committee on Interstate, U.S. Senate 62, Congress. Washington. 1913.

DOCUMENT D

The price which society pays for the law of competition, like the price it pays for cheap comforts and luxuries, is also great; but the advantages this law are also greater still, for it is to this law that we owe our wonderful material development, which brings improved conditions in its train.... We accept and welcome, therefore, as conditions to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment, the concentration of business, industrial and commercial, in the hands of the few, and the law of competition between these, as being not only beneficial, but essential for the future progress of the race.

Source: "Wealth" by Andrew Carnegie, 1889.

DOCUMENT E

In other words, we know that the antitrust law of the nation and the states as well is being perverted and is being used for ends that were never intended and, should present conditions continue, would bring about a situation that cannot be later on remedied.

Source: Senate Hearings on Interstate Commerce, 1911-1912, testimony of J.R. Moorehead.

DOCUMENT F

These forms of corporation served a useful purpose, but within the past few years these corporations have been consolidating many separate corporations located in one or several states, selling out their plants to a corporation organized for the purpose of buying up all these separate plants and conducting them under one management; and it has been found that the increased power possessed by these large consolidated corporations or trusts as they are commonly known have caused them to pursue a policy that has infringed on the rights of individuals, or have used their influences in restraint of trade, been detrimental to the rights of labor, destroyed the value of other property, and deprived other individuals of the use of their capital, and as so far this has been done, is clearly against public policy and subversive of best interests of the republic...

Source: Chicago Conference on Trusts testimony of Aaron Jones Chicago. 1900.

DOCUMENT G

Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal. every person who shall make any contract or engage in any combination or conspiracy hereby declared to be illegal shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by not exceeding ten million dollars if a corporation, or, if any other person, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding three years, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.

Source: Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.

DOCUMENT H

It is clear that trusts are contrary to public policy and hence in conflict with the common law. they are monopolies organized to destroy competition and restrain trade...It is contended by those interested in trusts that they tend to cheapen production and diminish the price of the article to the consumer.... Trusts are speculative in their purpose and formed to make money. Once they secure control of a given line of business, they are masters of the situation and can dictate to the great classes with which they deal- the producer of the raw material and the consumer of the finished product. they limit the price the of raw material so as to impoverish the producer, drive him to a single market, reduce the price of every class of labor connected with the trade, throw out of employment large numbers of persons who had before been engaged in a meritorious calling and finally... they increase the price to the consumer....

Source: A Call to Action, 1892 James B. Weaver.

DOCUMENT I

Source: A Cartoon by Horace Taylor, September 25, 1899.

	DOCUMENT REFERENCES
A	Newman, John J. and Schmalbach, John M. United States History. New York: Amsco, 1998.
B
C	Benton, William. The Annals of History.
D	"Wealth" byAndrew Carnegie. April 10, 2000. <http://www.furman.edu/~benson/docs/carnegie.htm>
E	Benton, William. The Annals of History.
F	Benton, William. The Annals of History.
G	Poole, Keith T. 1998. 10 April 00. <http://k7moa.gsia.cmo.edu/antitrust.htm>
H
I
J	Moffat, Gordon C. 1997. 11 April 00. <http: www.historio.ohiostate.edu/projects/uscartoons/trust1900campaign.htm>