may appear excessive. It generally has been the
largest and strongest factories, in the more favored situations,
that, in order to get rid of troublesome competitors, have forced the
smaller, weaker, industries to come into the trust. In other cases the
smaller enterprises have been eager to be taken in at a good price,
altho they might have continued to operate independently with moderate
profits. When, therefore, it is said that competition is destructive,
it may be a partial truth, but more likely it is a pleasantry
reflecting the happy humor of the prosperous promoters of the
combination.

Sec. 12. #Motive to effect economies.# Another advantage of the
combination of competing plants that was strongly emphasized was the
economy of large production.[9] The economies that are possible within
a single factory may be still greater in a number of combined or
federated industries. The cost of management, amount of stock carried,
advertising, cost of selling the product, may all be smaller per unit
of product. Each independent factory must send its drummers into every
part of the country to seek business. In combination they can divide
the territory, visit every merchant and get larger orders at smaller
cost. A large aggregation can control credit better and escape
losses from bad debts. By regulating and equalizing the output in
the different localities, it can run more nearly full time. Being
acquainted with the entire situation, it can reduce the friction. A
combination has advantages in shipment. It can have a clearing-house
for orders and ship from the nearest source of supply. The least
efficient factories can be first closed when demand falls off.
Factories can be specialized to produce that for which each is best
fitted. The magnitude of the industry and its presence in different
localities often, in the period of trust formation, served to
strengthen its influence with the railroads, and to increase its
political as well as its economic power.

Another phase of corporate growth is the "integration of industry,"
that is, the grouping under one control of a whole series of
industries. One company may carry the iron ore through all the
processes from the mine to the finished product. A railroad line
across the continent owns its own steamers for shipping goods to Asia
or Europe. Large wholesale houses own or control the output of entire
factories.

Sec. 13. #Profits from monopoly and gains of promoters.# There ar