The concentrated leadership, the partial control, the thorough organization thereby effected, was not necessarily a bad thing.

It was in some respects a decidedly good thing, because leadership of any kind has certain intrinsic advantages.

The trusts have certainly succeeded in reducing the amount of waste which was necessitated by the earlier condition of wholly unregulated competition.
The competitive methods of nature have been, and still are, within limits indispensable; but the whole effort of civilization has been to reduce the area within which they are desirably effective; and it is entirely possible that in the end the American system of industrial organization will constitute a genuine advance in industrial economy.
Large corporations, which can afford the best machinery; which control abundant capital, and which can plan with scrupulous economy all the details of producing and selling an important product or service, are actually able to reduce the cost of production to a minimum; and in the cases of certain American corporations such results have actually been achieved.

The new organization of American industry has created an economic mechanism which is capable of being wonderfully and indefinitely serviceable to the American people.
On the other hand, its serviceability is much diminished by the special opportunities it gives a few individuals.

These opportunities do not amount in any case to a monopoly, but they do amount to a species of economic privilege which enable them to wring profits from the increasing American market disproportionate to the value of their economic services.