generation of business men trained since 1900 has had no illusions
about competition. Rather, it has had as its object the successful
combination of various forms of business enterprise into ever larger
units. First, there was the uniting of like industries;--cotton mills
were linked with cotton mills, mines with mines. Then came the
integration of industry--the concentration under one control of all of
the steps in the industrial process from the raw material to the
finished product,--iron mines, coal mines, blast furnaces, converters,
and rail mills united in one organization to take the raw material from
the ground and to turn out the finished steel product. Last of all there
was the union of unlike industries,--the control, by one group of
interests, of as many and as varied activities as could be brought
together and operated at a profit. The lengths to which business men
have gone in combining various industries is well shown by the recent
investigation of the meat packing industry. In the course of that
investigation, the Federal Trade Commission was able to show that the
five great packers (Wilson, Armour, Swift, Morris and Cudahy) were
directly affiliated with 108 business enterprises, including 12
rendering companies; 18 stockyard companies; 8 terminal railway
companies; 9 manufacturers of packers' machinery and supplies; 6 cattle
loan companies; 4 public service corporations; 18 banks, and a number of
miscellaneous companies, and that they controlled 2000 food products not
immediately related to the packing industry.[38]

Business is consolidated because consolidation pays--not primarily,
through the increase of prices, but through the greater stability, the
lessened costs, and the growing security that has accompanied the
abolition of competition.

Again the forces of social organization have triumphed in the face of an
almost universal opposition. American business men practiced competition
until they found that cooperation was the only possible means of
conducting large affairs. Theory advised, "Compete"! Experience warned,
"Combine"! Business men--like all other practical people--accepted the
dictates of experience as the only sound basis for procedure. Their
combination solidified their ranks, preparing them to take their places
in a closely knit, dominant class, with clearly marked interests, and a
strong feeling of class consciousness and solidarity.

It was in the consummation of these combinations,