Its object would be to give these somewhat novel industrial
agents a more prolonged and thorough test than any they have yet
received. If they survived for some generations and increased in
efficiency and strength, it could only be because the advantages they
enjoyed in the way of natural resources, abundant capital, organization,
terminals, and responsible management were decisive and permanent; and
in that case the responsibility of the state could not be limited to
their automatic regulation and partial assimilation. A policy must be
adopted of converting them into express economic agents of the whole
community, and of gradually appropriating for the benefit of the
community the substantial economic advantages which these corporations
had succeeded in acquiring. Just in so far, that is, as a monopoly or a
semi-monopoly succeeded in surviving and growing, it would partake of
the character of a natural monopoly, and would be in a position to
profit beyond its deserts from the growth of the community.
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