vindication of
Yankee cleverness and worthy of emulation, without much examination of
the methods by which it was attained. The Standard Oil Company,
attracting attention to itself, raised the question of the effect of
industry upon society.

The evils ascribed to the trusts were social or political. In a social
way they were believed to check individualism and to create too large a
proportion of subordinates to independent producers. As monopolies, they
were believed to threaten extortion through high price. It was strongly
suspected of the largest trusts that having destroyed all competition
they could fix prices at pleasure. Economists pointed out that such
price could hardly be high and yet remunerative to the trusts, because
the latter did not dare to check consumption. But fear of oppression
could not be dispelled by any economic law.

The trust was believed to have an evil influence in politics, and to
obtain special favors through bribery or pressure. The United States was
used to the influence of money in politics, and distrusted public
officials. The state constitutions framed in this period were being
expanded into codes of specific law in the hope of safeguarding public
interests. There was little belief that corrupt overtures, if made by
the trusts, would be resisted.

Lloyd, and men of his type, believed in regulation and control. Some of
them became socialists. Others hoped to restore a competitive basis by
law. The greatest impression on the public was made by one of their
literary allies, Edward Bellamy.

Early in 1888 Edward Bellamy published a romance entitled _Looking
Backward_, in which his hero, Mr. Julian West, went to sleep in 1887,
with labor controversy and trust denunciation sounding in his ears, to
awake in the year 2000 A.D. The socialized state into which the hero was
reborn was a picture of an end to which industry was perhaps drifting.
It caught public attention. Clubs of enthusiasts tried to hasten the day
of nationalization by forming Bellamistic societies. Those who were
repelled by a future in which the trusts and the State were merged
became more active in their demand for regulation.

The legislative side of trust regulation, like that of railway
regulation, was made more difficult because of the division of powers
between Congress and the States. It was an interesting question whether
one State could control a monopoly as large as the nation. But the
States passed anti-trust