The telegraph industry is, of course, of much the same nature as the telephone. As is well known, the telegraph systems of this country are divided between two large corporations, which operate in complete harmony as to rates and so forth. Much the larger of these two is the Western Union Telegraph Company. Its only competitor, the Postal Telegraph Cable Company, is a sub-corporation of the Commercial Cable Company. The latter operates the MackayBennett cables between this country and Europe, and also other Atlantic lines. In addition, it controls the Commercial Pacific Cable Company, now operating between this country, Hawaii and the Philippines.

The total capitalization of the Trusts embraced in our list in the telephone and telegraph industries amounts to $629,700,500, representing 8 Trusts or consolidations and including 136 original plants.

The other more local franchise consolidations are the trolley, gas and electric lighting interests. In the tables in Part VI figures are given showing 103 of these consolidations with an aggregate capital of $3,105,755,571, and covering about 1,200 original companies. Many of these consolidations represent the entire lighting and street railway interests of their respective localities, and their capitalizations run up into the hundreds of millions. The greater aggregations are, of course, chiefly those located in the great centres of population, like New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg and Boston, and so forth. Others, such as the United Gas Improvement Company of Philadelphia, are security-holding corporations which control a large number of local operating companies in different parts of the United States.

In Part V are furnished figures which should prove of much public interest, covering the steam railroad aggregations of the country. These aggregations, which are analyzed in a general way on pages 443 to 450, cover railroad consolidations representing a combined outstanding capitalization (par value of stocks and bonds) of $9,397,363,907, or nearly 80% of all the floating railroad capitalization of this country, and, as has been shown on page 441 nearly 95% of the vital American railway mileage. These railway consolidations embrace about 1,040 original companies.

Thus it will be seen that including Industrial, Franchise, Transportation and miscellaneous, about 445 active Trusts are represented in the book with a total capitalization of $20,379,162,551. They embrace in all about 8,664 original companies.

To analyze these figures slightly in detail we find that of the Industrial Trusts 10 have $100,000,000 capitalization or over, 30 have $50,000,000 or over and 129 have $10,000,000 or over. Of the Franchise Trusts II exceed $100,000,000, 23 exceed $50,000,000 and 94 exceed $5,000,000. Of the six Great Railroad Groups, all exceed $1,000,000,000 capital, while the Morgan Group exceeds $2,

200,000,000.

CHAPTER II. DOMINATING INFLUENCES IN THE

TRUSTS.

The large diagram facing the Introduction gives an indication of the extent to which the Greater Trusts are dominated by that remarkable group of men known as the "Standard Oil," or Rockefeller financiers. These men, it will be seen, either entirely control or make their influence felt to a marked degree in all the Greater Trusts. They are in fact the real fathers of the Trust idea in this country, and, of course, have always been the controlling factors in that most far-reaching and successful of all Trusts, the Standard Oil Company. This latter corporation, with a par value capitalization of $97,500,000, absolutely dominates the oil industry of the United States, supplying 84% of the domestic demand of oil, and over 90% of the export demand. Furthermore, it produces in the neighborhood of 200 different by-products of oil, and in nearly all of these latter industries there are said to be large profits which contribute to an important extent in making up the enormous earnings of the Trust. The dividends of the Standard Oil Trust are more than $40,000,000 per year, and its net profits are reported to exceed over $60,000,000 per annum.

But it is not merely in oil and its allied industries that the Rockefeller interests are dominant. They are the controlling factors in the Copper Trust and the Smelters' Trust, and are also closely identified with the mammoth Tobacco Trust, which now practically encircles the globe. Furthermore, while not entirely dominant, they are interested in and display a marked influence in the great Morgan properties, such as the United States Steel Corporation. In the hundreds of smaller Industrial Trusts, the Rockefeller interests are also conspicuous in many ways. They dominate a variety of minor industries, and it was recently reported that they had acquired an important interest in the production of asbestos.

Even a hasty glance through the pages of this book will show that the different members of the Standard group of financiers are identified with a great many of the prominent Trusts herein described, and it is a well-known fact that their indirect influence is of great importance in many other industrial consolidations. It is worth noting, however, and is a matter of some significance that they do not seem to be prominently connected with any of the crippled or mismanaged Trusts which are described in Part III.

Coming to the Franchise aggregations, we find that everywhere the Standard Oil influence is most prominent. The Rockefeller interests practically dominate the entire public service aggregations of Greater New York, represented by over $725,000,000 of capital; they are allied in interest with the well-known United Gas Improvement Company of Philadelphia, which is itself the leading corporation of the famous Philadelphia or Widener-Elkins group, and which dominates the public utility interests in a number of the largest centres of population in the United States, and in addition controls the lighting interests of a score or more of the smaller American cities.

And turning to the steam railroad field, we find that the Standard Oil interests are one of the conspicuous factors and are steadily increasing their influence there. One of the greater groups (the Gould-Rockefeller) is, of course, directly dominated by them; but, as a matter of fact, the Standard influence is felt quite forcefully in all the Railroad groups, and this influence is showing a steady growth throughout the entire steam railroad field. It is now freely predicted in Wall Street that the next decade will see the Rockefeller interests the single dominating force in the world of railway finance and control.

The great Rockefeller alliances in the railroad and industrial fields are supplemented and welded together, as it were, through the New York city financial interests of the group. Their banking influence is of very great importance, and their ramifications are farreaching and of great effectiveness. Thus, the Standard Oil chain of banking institutions, headed by the great National City Bank, with a capital and surplus of $40,000,000, and deposits exceeding $200,000,000, includes also the Hanover National Bank, the Second National Bank, the United States Trust Company, the Farmers Loan & Trust Company, the Central Realty Bond & Trust Company and a number of smaller institutions. Some of these banks (particularly the National City) have strong dominating influences with the larger banking institutions of other great cities. The Standard interests are also closely allied with the great life insurance companies, such as the Equitable and the Mutual of New York.

In fact, it is not possible to more than attempt an approximate estimate of the entire Standard Oil industrial, financial and commercial interests of the nation, as their ramifications are so varied and extensive that a clear line of demarcation could not be drawn which would absolutely distinguish the interests which are more or less dominated by them, from those which are not. The

chart which we publish, however, gives a fairly accurate "bird's eye view" of the immensity of their influence and importance as the leading factors in American financial and industrial affairs.

The Morgan group of industries and transportation companies is, next to the Standard Oil interests, by far the most important. In fact, the only gigantic interests or groups which can in any sense be considered as on the same plane are the Rockefeller and Morgan groups. There are, it is true, a number of other large groups in special lines, but these two are the only distinctively great interests that dominate immense areas in all lines, steam transportation, public service, industrial, financial, banking, insurance and so forth. The great Morgan enterprises in the industrial world are the Steel and Shipping Trusts, the Electrical Supply Trust, the Rubber Trust, and a score or more of smaller aggregations. In the public utility field the Morgan interests dominate a series of lesser enterprises, but have never been so conspicuous in these lines as have the Rockefeller financiers.

But it is in the railroad world that the Morgan influence makes its greatest claim for public attention. In Part V. of this book will be found figures indicating that the Morgan group of steam railroad properties embraces over 47,000 miles of lines, or nearly twice the mileage of any other one group; and its capitalization exceeds $2,265,000,000, a sum far in excess of that of any of the other five groups, and, in fact, amounting to nearly 25% of all the group railroad capital of the United States. The Morgan railroad properties are nearly all located in growing sections of the country, and there is probably a very small proportion of worthless and unprofitable mileage embraced in the various Morgan systems. Another feature about the Morgan group is that in most cases the lines embraced absolutely dominate certain sections of the country; such as, for instance, the entire South and the great Northwest.

The Morgan domination, like the Standard Oil, makes itself felt through the means and influence of large metropolitan financial institutions and great banks, such as the National Bank of Commerce, First National Bank, Chase National Bank, and Liberty National Bank. The great life insurance companies, such as the New York Life, and trust companies, such as the Mercantile, Guaranty and Central Trust, are generally rated as being at least partially under the Morgan control.

It should not be supposed, however, that these two great groups of capitalists and financiers are in any real sense rivals or competitors for power, or that such a thing as "war" exists between them.