106 The Stock Market Crash—dAnd After 
But it should be borne in mind that the economies 
from mergers take time to develop, while the effect 
on the stock market of their formation is instant. 
Sometimes, when from twelve to eighteen months 
elapse before economies are reflected in added divi- 
dends, the ratio of prices of merger stocks to earn- 
ings may seem to rise unduly. Yet an eventual con- 
tinuous bettering of earnings may justify the higher 
prices. 
This, with its resultant economies of large-scale 
production, accounts in large measure for the great 
appreciation of security values during the last few 
years. During the Roosevelt and Wilson régimes 
there was an organized effort at “trust busting”; 
it was the popular sport of politicians, but in these 
days under Coolidge and Hoover, governmental 
authorities have gone the limit to stretch the Sherman 
Act and the Clayton Act in order to aid the move. 
ment for business efficiency, because so many now 
believe the interests of the people of the United 
States require big business. True, there are still 
prosecutions under the anti-trust laws, but they are 
fewer and not trumpeted for political effect. While 
we avoid the word “trust” today, we do have the 
same result through “mergers”; these have not 
fallen heir to the unpopularity of the trusts, but are 
recognized as a means of economy. 
In fact, amendments have been from time to time 
offered considerably modifying the Sherman Anti 
Trust Act, the Clayton Act and other anti-trust 
laws. In the last administration President Coolidge